I've seen a few articles on this now. They keep calling it a "secret" message and "hieroglyphic cryptography," but then talk about how sufficiently literate people are supposed to understand it, and the content is along the lines of "The god-king cannot be dethroned" and "Make offerings to the gods." Nothing about this sounds like it was intended to be kept secret or confidential from anyone.
This seems more like fancy typesetting than cryptography, combined with an awareness that the writing at the top of a big tall obelisk will only be readable from a distance.
Such writing would give non-standard meanings to signs, or drawn them in non-standard ways, or use entirely invented signs. It would be a puzzle to work out the meaning, and I imagine most people who weren't very literate would be stumped. They certainly stumped egyptologists for a while when the first examples were discovered.
bondarchuk · 1h ago
Sufficiently literate people can understand any encrypted message.
Zamiel_Snawley · 1h ago
Pi is equal to 3 for sufficiently small values of pi, and sufficiently large values of 3.
thanatos519 · 3h ago
It's like an ancient version of
> You see the new and improved Oval Office as it becomes more and more beautiful with love. We handle it with great love and 24 carat gold. That always helps too. But it’s been a lot of fun going over some of the beautiful pictures that were stored in the vaults that were for many, many years, in some cases over 100 years, stored in vaults of the great presidents or almost great presidents or all having a reason for being up every one of them.
rsynnott · 4m ago
Every time I see a quote from him, I assume it most be parody.
This one seems to be real, though, complete with the bit at the end where his brain broke down entirely.
orwin · 3h ago
No way this was ever said. No way. It's so wild it's funny. I ought to follow US news more (and sorry for people who live there).
cocostation · 2h ago
It's a testament to his public speaking skills that transcripts of his statements are so startling.
The messages were not secret at all, they were just written on the face of the obelisk that faces the river. Meaning that only visitors by boat would read them when docking rather than the poor pedestrians using the normal road.
In this article in French, they mention hieroglyphs encoded in the way arms and legs are drawn of a figure on the throne of Tutankhamun, and that only 6 Egyptologists in the whole worlds are able to decode them.
Hmmm, I wonder how mainstream these ideas are? Do other Egyptologists respect them?
orwin · 3h ago
The idea of cryptohieroglyphs is accepted as true it seems (at least in France), even though most Egyptologist think they are highly interpretative: think about literature and how some literature expert would interpret Poe's books (sorry only classic US author i know beside Kerouac), except worse.
Still, it's clear ancient egyptians loved their puzzles, the clear interpretation of what they mean is what elude us.
thechao · 2h ago
I suspect, that in the context of "reputable academically sound Egyptologist" the number "6" is a bumper crop of Egyptologists. The set of reputable academics in these fields is always a lot smaller than you'd like. I think that's why there's so many cranks.
permo-w · 1h ago
I struggle with Egyptology as a whole. you watch even mainstream, reputable documentaries on Ancient Egypt and there is a lot of what and little why, and it makes you wonder how much of it is actual science and how much of it is just the most exciting available interpretation of the facts to please the Egyptians/draw in viewers. the Egyptian authorities want tourists, and control archaeology licenses tightly, and "we found a scroll that mentions moving some building materials near the great pyramid" sells far less plane tickets than "we found a scroll written by the architect of The Great Pyramid!!!!"
Luc · 1h ago
There appears to be 300 to 500 practicing academic Egyptologists. So from 1% to 2% can read the secret messages.
Trasmatta · 3h ago
Are the same messages on the obelisk in Central Park? I believe it's essentially the same obelisk. I walk by that one at least once a week. Pretty sad how much the NYC climate has damaged it, though, as opposed to the desert climate it originated from.
walthamstow · 3h ago
The London and NYC ones ('Cleopatra's Needles') are related to each other but I don't think they are related to the Paris one
Trasmatta · 3h ago
You're right, I mixed up the Paris and London obelisks.
This seems more like fancy typesetting than cryptography, combined with an awareness that the writing at the top of a big tall obelisk will only be readable from a distance.
Such writing would give non-standard meanings to signs, or drawn them in non-standard ways, or use entirely invented signs. It would be a puzzle to work out the meaning, and I imagine most people who weren't very literate would be stumped. They certainly stumped egyptologists for a while when the first examples were discovered.
> You see the new and improved Oval Office as it becomes more and more beautiful with love. We handle it with great love and 24 carat gold. That always helps too. But it’s been a lot of fun going over some of the beautiful pictures that were stored in the vaults that were for many, many years, in some cases over 100 years, stored in vaults of the great presidents or almost great presidents or all having a reason for being up every one of them.
This one seems to be real, though, complete with the bit at the end where his brain broke down entirely.
The messages were not secret at all, they were just written on the face of the obelisk that faces the river. Meaning that only visitors by boat would read them when docking rather than the poor pedestrians using the normal road.
In this article in French, they mention hieroglyphs encoded in the way arms and legs are drawn of a figure on the throne of Tutankhamun, and that only 6 Egyptologists in the whole worlds are able to decode them.
Hmmm, I wonder how mainstream these ideas are? Do other Egyptologists respect them?
Still, it's clear ancient egyptians loved their puzzles, the clear interpretation of what they mean is what elude us.