Secret Messages Detected On Egyptian Obelisk in Paris

PARIS, FRANCE—Artnet reports that on his daily walks around Paris, French Egyptologist Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier began to notice unusual hieroglyphics on the giant obelisk standing in the city’s Place de la Concorde. The monument was erected during the reign of Ramesses II (reigned ca. 1279–1213 b.c.) and originally stood outside Egypt’s Luxor Temple, but was given to France in the 1830s. Olette-Pelletier believed that the carved stone block could feature crypto-hieroglyphics, secret messages involving puzzles or wordplay that only Egypt’s educated and intellectual elite would have been able to read. He was given the opportunity to examine the 70-foot obelisk up close as it underwent cleaning prior to the 2024 Paris Olympics, and confirmed that the symbols did indeed contain at least seven examples of crypto-hieroglyphics. These essentially sought to remind those who could read them that Ramesses II had been chosen by the gods and claimed his ancestry from Amun-Re and Maat. Their location on the stone would have only made them visible to nobles who arrived at the Temple of Luxor by boat during the Opet festival, which was held annually during the Nile's flood season and reinforced the pharaoh's right to rule. “Given the angle of approach, the nobility would have seen the hidden message and reflected: ‘the king confirms himself as god incarnate, who cannot be dethroned,'” Olette-Pelletier said. “It was propaganda aimed at the very high intellectual elite.” To read about obelisks from the Egyptian city of Heliopolis that were later moved to European cities, go to "Egypt's Eternal City."