In 1799 Napoleon's army uncovered an ancient stele in the Nile delta. Its inscription, recorded in three distinct scripts--ancient Greek, Coptic, and hieroglyphic--would provide scholars with the first clues to unlocking the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphs, a language lost for nearly two millennia. [...]

As a child Jean-Francois Champollion had but one fervent wish - to travel to Egypt and solve the mystery of the ancient hieroglyphs. Finally, a brief lull in the Mediterranean war against the Ottoman Sultan offered his expedition a window of a few days in 1828 to disembark. Egypt proved a treacherou[...]