Cracking the Egyptian Code

Cracking the Egyptian Code is the first-ever biography in English of Jean-Francois Champollion, widely regarded as the founder of Egyptology. Author Andrew Robinson clearly demonstrates how Champollion cracked the code of the hieroglyphic script. Starting from Egyptian obelisks in Rome and papyri in European collections, Champollion sailed the Nile for a year, studied the tombs in the Valley of the Kings (a name he invented) and carefully compared the three scripts on the Rosetta Stone...
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Cracking the Egyptian Code is the first-ever biography in English of Jean-Francois Champollion, widely regarded as the founder of Egyptology. Author Andrew Robinson clearly demonstrates how Champollion cracked the code of the hieroglyphic script. Starting from Egyptian obelisks in Rome and papyri in European collections, Champollion sailed the Nile for a year, studied the tombs in the Valley of the Kings (a name he invented) and carefully compared the three scripts on the Rosetta Stone to penetrate the mystery of the hieroglyphic text. Robinson also brings to life the rivalry between Champollion and the English scientist Thomas Young, who claimed credit for launching the decipherment, which Champollion hotly denied. There is much more to Champollion's life than the Rosetta Stone and Robinson gives equal weight to the many roles he played in his tragically brief life, from a youth and teenage professor in Revolutionary France to a supporter of Napoleon (whom he met), an exile, a fanatical decipherer, and a curator at the Louvre.