CHAMPOLLION

For many years people tried to understand the egyptian characters found everywhere in ancient Egypt, the hieroglyphs, but without much success.

But in 1799 took place a decisive fact that eventually would change all that. At that time Napolean was pursuing his Egypt campaign and one of his soldiers made a remarkable discovery, the Rosetta Stone.
This artifact would be the key to unlock a mystery with thousand years and reveal to the world the secrets of a civilization and a golden era.

The text crafted on the stone surface was the description of the coronation of Ptolemy at 196 BC, but what was remarkable was that besides egyptian native language the report was translated in two more, demotic and greek.

Greek was one of the languages known at that time by a particular linguist, one that had persuit the deciphering of egyptian language since he was a boy. His name was Champollion.

When Napolean came to Egypt he took with him many scientists to study the egyptian science and culture and to help revealing and exposing many precious artifacts.

One of them was Fourier. When he come back to France he took with him some of this minus artifacts that would capture the attention of a 11 years old boy that he take to his care, Champollion. This, by the time, strange artifacts would lead Champollion to devote his life to uncover the secrets hidden in them, specially those mysterious symbols and characters that nobody knew the meaning.

He came to be a skillful linguist and with the Rosetta Stone and another obelisk about Cleopatra he manage to discover all the egyptian vocabulary.

In 1828, he finally set foot in the land that induce such wonder in him by an expedition to the ancient city and temples of Karnak. What he and his companions saw overwhelmed them and produce a fascination of a lifetime. In that walls he was able to read and decipher the meaning of the messages printed many eras ago.

From that moment on the clouds that were blocking our understanding were lifted revealing the apogee of the egyptian civilization.


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