A French Egyptologist has uncovered seven hidden messages within the hieroglyphs of the Luxor Obelisk in Paris, revealing the powerful propaganda of Pharaoh Ramses II. Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier, a hieroglyphic cryptology specialist at Sorbonne University, decoded the ancient inscriptions on the 22.5-meter-tall red granite monument, which stands at the Place de la Concorde. His discoveries, reported by The Times UK, shed new light on the obelisk’s role in projecting the Pharaoh’s power.
The Luxor Obelisk, dating back 3,000 years, was one of a pair originally placed at the entrance of the Luxor Temple in Egypt. Napoleon Bonaparte, after his 1798 Egyptian campaign, coveted the obelisks, and in 1830, the Egyptian ruler Pasha Muhammad Ali gifted one to France. The obelisk was eventually erected in Paris in 1836.
Olette-Pelletier’s work goes beyond the translations made in the 1820s, which were based on Jean-François Champollion’s groundbreaking work with the Rosetta Stone. Through careful scrutiny of the inscriptions, Olette-Pelletier uncovered a series of secret messages hidden within the hieroglyphs. These cryptic messages were intended for the intellectual elite and were designed to reinforce Ramses II’s divine sovereignty, highlighting his ancestry as a direct descendant of the gods Amun-Re and Maat.
One key message, visible on the obelisk’s west face, was a “propaganda message” intended to be seen only by aristocrats traveling by boat on the Nile. The message emphasized Ramses’ absolute sovereignty. Olette-Pelletier described the hieroglyphs as not only text but as images themselves, adding another layer to their meaning. “In our written language, we make a distinction between text and image,” he explained. “These new discoveries remind us that for the Egyptians, they were one and the same.”
The Luxor Obelisk was originally erected by Ramses II around 1,300 BC and is made from a single piece of granite quarried in Aswan. The obelisk was later transported up the Nile on barges. Though the second obelisk remains in Egypt, France was gifted one after a successful diplomatic effort led by a French envoy.
Olette-Pelletier’s findings, expected to be published in the French Egyptology journal ENiM (Egypt of the Nile and Mediterranean), open a new chapter in our understanding of ancient Egyptian monuments.
