Secret Hieroglyphs Discovered on Ancient Egyptian Obelisk in Paris

Seven previously unknown messages have been identified on the 3,000-year-old Luxor Obelisk in Paris, long believed to be fully deciphered.

The 75-foot granite monument, carved during the reign of Ramses II and gifted to France in the 19th century, stands at Place de la Concorde. During recent access enabled by Olympic renovation scaffolding, Egyptologist Dr Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier of Paris-Sorbonne University found the encrypted texts using his expertise in crypto-hieroglyphs. Among the inscriptions is a phrase invoking the “ka-force of Amun,” suggesting symbolic appeals to divine power.

The findings, made during the first full expert examination of the obelisk’s upper sections since its 1836 installation, will be published in the Montpellier-based Egyptology journal ENIM. Only one of two Luxor Obelisks, its twin remains in Luxor, Egypt and may hold additional undiscovered texts.