Beginning of Essay
Right from the beginning the deciphering of the mysterious Egyptian writing fascinated everybody. In 1799 a certain Captain Bouchard of the French Army was supervising work on the fortifications of Fort St. Julian, situated a little more than four kilometers outsi ....

Middle of Essay
.... long, is in Greek and hence was comprehensible. This latter text, translated without difficulty, proved to be a priestly decree in honor of Ptolemy Epiphanes which finishes with a formal instruction that “this decree, engraved on a tablet of hard stone, in three scripts, hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek, shall be engraved in each of the great temples of Egypt”. The honor of deciphering the hieroglyphs fell to two scholars, the Englishman Thomas Young and the Frenchman Francois Champollion who started work on it almost the same time and who were to see their efforts crowned by success. What Young achieved by instinct Champollion achieved by scient ....