Egyptologist in Paris Discovers Secret Messages on the Luxor Obelisk

In 1830, the viceroy of Egypt gifted France a 3,300-year-old Egyptian obelisk—a carved stone pillar with a pyramidal top. In 1836, the obelisk found its home in Paris, in Place de la Concorde. One would think that after standing in the center of the French capital for almost 200 years, Parisian Egyptologists would have learned all there is to discover about the ancient monument. But it turns out the famous obelisk still has its secrets. Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier, an Egyptologist and cryptologist from the Catholic University of Paris, claims to have discovered seven previously undocumented messages carved into the 13th-century BCE Luxor Obelisk. Altogether, the inscriptions were intended to establish Pharaoh Ramses II’s divine authority in the eyes of the ancient Egyptian elite. The discovery and its interpretation were first reported by French media, and the researcher aims to further detail his findings in a paper forthcoming in the journal ENiM (Egypt of the Nile and Mediterra ... Read full article.