The obelisk is covered in hieroglyphics—the ancient Egyptians’ pictorial writing system—and engraved with both names that Ramses used as king. During his long reign in the 13th century B.C ...

The symbols they used were called hieroglyphs, which comes from a Greek word meaning ‘sacred carving’. The ancient Egyptians believed that hieroglyphs had been invented by the gods.

One day, while reading the hieroglyphs, the Sorbonne University lecturer noticed something unusual: the inscriptions seemed to make an unusual gesture toward the portico of the Luxor Temple ...