Discovery of the Rosetta Stone – Key to Deciphering Egyptian Hieroglyphs

On July 15, 1799, French soldiers from Napoleon Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition corps discovered the so-called Rosetta Stone – a stele bearing a decree from a ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty. This stone later became the key to recovering the lost ability to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. The find occurred during construction work, and its significance was understood only after scholars began studying the trilingual inscription, written in ancient Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphic scripts. The Rosetta Stone is currently housed in the British Museum in London.