"French Egyptologist born in Figeac (France) (1790-1832). He was the first to discover the meaning of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. His discovery opened the doors of a new Egyptian reign."

Champollion was 16 when he first came to Paris. He wanted to find a job at the imperial library. Though he was only 16, he already knew several languages: French, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and Coptic (*). Try to imagine how difficult it was to study such languages at that time ! Next to the lessons in the "Collège de France", he spent nearly all his spare time in the imperial library studying Coptic. Many scientists of that time thought that this language was the key to understand the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

At the age of 20, Champollion left the "Collège" and became professor at the university of Grenoble. He just proved once more he was incredibly intelligent. He always wanted to learn more and more, sacrifying his life for his passion: the study of languages.

After years of research, in 1832, Champollion eventually discovered the secret of the Egyptian hieroglyphs with the help of the rosetta stone (**). This discovery led to all sorts of reactions in the scientific worlds, mostly caused by jealousy. Champollion didn't want to stop his work, he thought he hadn't learned everything about the hieroglyphs. So he decided to keep studying that language and he only went in Egypt for the first time in 1828.

In fact, Champollion really realised he had discovered the meaning of hieroglyphs when he went to Egypt, this trip was a kind of test for him. When he arrived there, he could easily understand hieroglyphs, he could walk in the temple and read the hieroglyphs on the walls as in an open book. Still thirsty for knowlegde, he kept on studying hieroglyphs but his passion killed him four years later in 1832.

Champollion has let us a incredible heritage. While he was in Egypt, he collected and bought a lots of objects from the Ancient Egypt. Those objects were later brought to Paris and shown in the "Musée du Louvre". 1998 was the "Egyptian year" in France and to inaugurate this new year, the "Louvre" had opened a new Egyptian room with objects brought by Champollion. Without Champollion's work, we would perhaps have discovered the meaning of hieroglyphs only this century. That's why I wanted to thank Champollion for his work through this page, thank you.

* Coptic: language spoken by Christians in the early christianized Egypt. There were not under the authority of Rome.
** Rosetta stone: stone found in Egypt by Napoleon's expedition. The story carved on the stone was written in three languages: Demotic, Greek and Egyptian (hieroglyphs).