Rosetta Stone — The Key That Unlocked Ancient Egypt

Carved in 196 BCE during the reign of Ptolemy V, the Rosetta Stone bears the same royal decree written in three scripts: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotic script, and Ancient Greek. Discovered by French soldiers near Rosetta (Rashid) in Egypt in 1799, it became the crucial key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics — a script that had been unreadable for nearly 1,400 years. Jean-François Champollion cracked the code in 1822. The Rosetta Stone is now the most visited object in the British Museum, London, where it has been held since 1802.

Ownership of the stone is disputed; Egypt has repeatedly requested its return from the British Museum.