Given to France by Egypt in 1830 and installed in 1836, the 3,300-year-old obelisk has always aroused the curiosity of passersby and history buffs. But thanks to Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier, a cryptohieroglyphics specialist at the Catholic University of Paris, we now know that it contains inscriptions invisible to the untrained eye.
Secret hieroglyphs visible only from a certain angle
It was in 2021, during restoration work that surrounded the obelisk with scaffolding, that the Egyptologist was able to closely examine its highest parts, very close to the golden tip. By observing the hieroglyphs horizontally, not vertically, as is customary, he discovered several new inscriptions hidden within the patterns.
“People hadn’t noticed that there was an offering table under one of the drawings of the god Amun,” explains Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier. This table reveals a complete sentence: an offering made by the king to the god Amun, with no missing elements.
The particularity of these inscriptions is that they use a technique called “three-dimensional cryptography.” To understand their meaning, you have to move around the monument. It is only by combining the different faces and observing from a precise angle – greater than 45 degrees – that the complete message appears: the glorification of Pharaoh Ramses II.
Some of these inscriptions were intended for travelers arriving by boat on the Nile, when the obelisk was still in Egypt, at the entrance to the Temple of Amun in Luxor. They served to remind those approaching that Ramses II reigned supreme over Egypt. "Here, it is indeed Ramses II who rules Egypt," summarizes Guillaume Olette-Pelletier.
The messages highlight the power of the pharaoh, his military victories, his exceptional longevity, and his role as an intermediary capable of appeasing the gods. They are inspired by subtle wordplay found in sacred papyrus texts of the time.
This discovery is a reminder that even the most famous monuments can still surprise. The obelisk, which already seemed well-known, confirms the incredible skill of the ancient Egyptians in the art of concealing messages of… propaganda!
Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier plans to publish the details of his research in the specialist journal ENiM (Egypt of the Nile and the Mediterranean). In the meantime, his work allows us to take a new look at this Parisian monument – and at the ingenuity of those who erected it more than three millennia ago.
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