Archaeology & History

Secret messages discovered on the Luxor Obelisk in Paris

By T.K. Randall
April 25, 2025

Image: Obelisk at Place de la Concorde, Paris
Credit: Guilhem Vellut / CC BY 2.0 (adapted) The monument, which was originally gifted to France in 1830 by the viceroy of Egypt, has stood in the middle of the Place de la Concorde in Paris for almost 200 years.

Despite the fact that experts have had centuries to examine and decipher its many ancient markings, Egyptologist and cryptologist Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier recently discovered a whole new set of messages inscribed upon the obelisk that nobody had ever noticed before.

He made the discovery quite unexpectedly when temporary scaffolding enabled him to access the otherwise unreachable upper parts of the monument.

The hidden messages were carefully concealed within the hieroglyphs - a type of writing known as 'crypto-hieroglyphs' - which would have originally only been readable by the ancient Egyptian elite.Even now, very few experts are able to interpret such writings.

The messages are made all the more cryptic by the fact that they can only be viewed properly from a very specific angle.

According to Olette-Pelletier, the messages themselves speak of the power, victories and longevity of Ramses II - the pharaoh who had reigned at the time the obelisk was built.

"These messages are a form of propaganda," he told French news outlet Le Point.

Whether or not there are any other hidden messages on the obelisk, however, remains unclear.

Source: Gizmodo

Tags: Obelisk, Egypt