The Rosetta Stone is viewed as one of the most remarkable finds of the ancient world. It was discovered in Egypt in 1799. The top and middle sections of the stone are carved with hieroglyphs and demotic – a variation of the Egyptian text.
The lower section is decorated with the Greek script which ultimately acted as a code breaker for the upper sections. A series of scholars were involved in the race to decipher the hieroglyphic code but the breakthrough is credited to Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832). Champollion used the Greek portion of the text to reveal the secret language of the pharaohs.