Secret Messages Detected on Egyptian Obelisk in Paris
50 comments
·May 8, 2025helpfulclippy
pdw
Crypto-hieroglyphic writing is a real thing: https://www.britannica.com/topic/hieroglyphic-writing/Crypto...
Such writing would give non-standard meanings to signs, or drawn them in non-standard ways, or use entirely invented signs. It would be a puzzle to work out the meaning, and I imagine most people who weren't very literate would be stumped. They certainly stumped egyptologists for a while when the first examples were discovered.
bondarchuk
Sufficiently literate people can understand any encrypted message.
Zamiel_Snawley
Pi is equal to 3 for sufficiently small values of pi, and sufficiently large values of 3.
thanatos519
It's like an ancient version of
> You see the new and improved Oval Office as it becomes more and more beautiful with love. We handle it with great love and 24 carat gold. That always helps too. But it’s been a lot of fun going over some of the beautiful pictures that were stored in the vaults that were for many, many years, in some cases over 100 years, stored in vaults of the great presidents or almost great presidents or all having a reason for being up every one of them.
orwin
No way this was ever said. No way. It's so wild it's funny. I ought to follow US news more (and sorry for people who live there).
cocostation
It's a testament to his public speaking skills that transcripts of his statements are so startling.
Slava_Propanei
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nunobrito
The news article was a true click-bait.
The messages were not secret at all, they were just written on the face of the obelisk that faces the river. Meaning that only visitors by boat would read them when docking rather than the poor pedestrians using the normal road.
bhickey
You can change the link: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/hidden-messages-paris-luxo...
Luc
Yes, this is a much better link.
Luc
https://www.progres.net.eg/plusieurs-messages-caches-sur-lob...
In this article in French, they mention hieroglyphs encoded in the way arms and legs are drawn of a figure on the throne of Tutankhamun, and that only 6 Egyptologists in the whole worlds are able to decode them.
Hmmm, I wonder how mainstream these ideas are? Do other Egyptologists respect them?
orwin
The idea of cryptohieroglyphs is accepted as true it seems (at least in France), even though most Egyptologist think they are highly interpretative: think about literature and how some literature expert would interpret Poe's books (sorry only classic US author i know beside Kerouac), except worse.
Still, it's clear ancient egyptians loved their puzzles, the clear interpretation of what they mean is what elude us.
thechao
I suspect, that in the context of "reputable academically sound Egyptologist" the number "6" is a bumper crop of Egyptologists. The set of reputable academics in these fields is always a lot smaller than you'd like. I think that's why there's so many cranks.
permo-w
I struggle with Egyptology as a whole. you watch even mainstream, reputable documentaries on Ancient Egypt and there is a lot of what and little why, and it makes you wonder how much of it is actual science and how much of it is just the most exciting available interpretation of the facts to please the Egyptians/draw in viewers. the Egyptian authorities want tourists, and control archaeology licenses tightly, and "we found a scroll that mentions moving some building materials near the great pyramid" sells far less plane tickets than "we found a scroll written by the architect of The Great Pyramid!!!!"
Luc
There appears to be 300 to 500 practicing academic Egyptologists. So from 1% to 2% can read the secret messages.
Trasmatta
Are the same messages on the obelisk in Central Park? I believe it's essentially the same obelisk. I walk by that one at least once a week. Pretty sad how much the NYC climate has damaged it, though, as opposed to the desert climate it originated from.
walthamstow
The London and NYC ones ('Cleopatra's Needles') are related to each other but I don't think they are related to the Paris one
Trasmatta
You're right, I mixed up the Paris and London obelisks.
amitport
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victorbjorklund
That is just silly. Should we demand Iran returns things from Greece, Egypt, etc that they acquired during the Persian empire? Should Egypt return things they acquired from their neighbors in the past?
diggan
Depends on "acquired" means. Pillages as part of a war? Then yes, why not give it back? "Acquired" in terms of gifted by the other party, like this Obelisk, then no, that wouldn't make sense. Same goes for purchased.
But things stolen with violence or threat of violence, should probably be returned (if they want it returned). While we shouldn't hold children responsible for the actions of our parents, we can also be better than our parents and return things we know aren't rightfully ours.
Off-topic, but you're probably one of the top 3 persons in the world with the most similar first+last name as myself, with a Levenshtein Distance of only 6 :)
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dbetteridge
It was a gift from Egypt
amitport
Egypt was subjugated to the Ottoman Empire at the time.
And even if they had some kind of king/dictator, it is certainly was a decision of a free people.
What antique France monuments did France give away just like that for no reason? Do not take what should not have been offered.
rixed
Actually, that's interresting.
According to wikipedia[0], the frenchs did think about stealing it during the Napoleonic wars, but didn't. Some time later they "suggested" to the Ottomans that the obelisks be offered, in exchange for a monumental clock[1]
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor_Obelisks#Luxor_Obelisk...
amitport
In any case, it didn't belong to the Ottomans to give away.
Getting it as gift from a conquering entity, does not make any of it better.
diggan
Is the US planning on giving back the Statue of Liberty? Would make as much sense
Disposal8433
You can keep it, it's pretty where it is. And we already have like 20 of those: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicas_of_the_Statue_of_Libe...
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infecto
While I generally understand the sentiment, I would also argue that most of the countries that have been pillaged of artifacts are also incredibly unstable. I would rather the pillaging exist than to lose history. We could go on as to why those countries are unstable but keeping it bounded to simply the pillaging of artifacts I stand behind it.
amitport
Now I'll just be waiting for Italy to return the colleseum stones to Jerusalem. Pretty sure the temple would have been fine, if they would not have destroyed it themeselves.
The "we took it to keep it safe" argument is kinda of weak, and still morally wrong
infecto
You can hand wave all you want. I am not defending the original reason for those artifacts being taken but I am saying for existing countries in the world that are unstable I don’t find your argument to hold much validity.
Slava_Propanei
[dead]
krapp
Europeans routinely destroyed the artifacts of any culture they considered heretical. They tore down Greek and Roman temples to build churches on the ruins. They stripped the Coliseum for parts. They made soup out of mummies and traded grave goods as baubles. The premise that they somehow deserve to be considered the librarians and guardians of the very cultures they colonized and exploited is an absurd, and implicitly racist, imperialist ideal.
You may be right that the political situation has become complicated (the specific case of this obelisk is complicated) but let's not retroactively claim noble intent behind what at the time was little different than what the Vikings did when they showed up at Lindisfarne.
aredox
> They tore down Greek and Roman temples to build churches on the ruins. They stripped the Coliseum for parts. They made soup out of mummies and traded grave goods as baubles.
And yet they/we changed, and have preserved countless artifacts that even their original cultures are only now interested in. Not to forget that the very promotion of those foreign artifacts played a big role in making Westerners recognize the value of those other cultures and how much we have destroyed!
oliv__
Are you planning to return the genes in you that came from other nationalities and tribes?
Ylpertnodi
>(also looking at you, England and Italy...)
*Great Britain, and whoever.
I've seen a few articles on this now. They keep calling it a "secret" message and "hieroglyphic cryptography," but then talk about how sufficiently literate people are supposed to understand it, and the content is along the lines of "The god-king cannot be dethroned" and "Make offerings to the gods." Nothing about this sounds like it was intended to be kept secret or confidential from anyone.
This seems more like fancy typesetting than cryptography, combined with an awareness that the writing at the top of a big tall obelisk will only be readable from a distance.