In May 1798, Napoleon and his fleet sailed from Toulon to contest British strength in Egypt to try and menace the British position in India. They were digging a trench near Rosetta and a French officer hit his shovel on a rock. This was the Rosetta Stone. When the French surrendered in 1801, the stone was forfeited to the British and put in the British Museum.

        The Rosetta Stone was the key to deciphering the Egyption Picture Writing (or hieroglyphics) on the Pyramids. It was black and about 2' wide and 4' long. With the 3 languages (hieroglyphics on top, Greek on the bottom, and demotic, the later Egyption language, in the middle) it stated a decree of honor from Ptolemy V, 196 B.C. 3 corners were missing.

        By 1802, the French orientalist, Silvestre de Sacy, published part of the solution. In the same year, a total solution by a Swedish scholar, John David Akerblad came out. These were both translated from demotic since a lot of people knew Greek. Finally, in 1832, Jean-Francois Chapollion decoded the hieroglyphics. These people, along with other, have helped to let us know about hieroglyphics as much as we do today.