From 1789-1801, Napoleon Bonaparte and his army lead a group of scientists and historians to France’s invasion of Egypt. Napoleon ordered all of his followers to seize any important artifacts they found in Egypt to bring back to France. Napolean gave speeches and motivated his men to work diligently in order to advance France's knowledge on ancient civilization while in Egypt. On July 19, 1799, one of Napoleon’s savants named Pierre-François Bouchard stumbled across a large stone covered in three scripts while repairing a fort in el-Rashid (Rosetta). Bouchard and Napoleon immediately knew that the stone was valuable, and began distributing copies around to world - starting the frenzy to decipher the hieroglyphic code.

Emperor Napolean in His Studies at the Tuileries, Jacques-Louis David,  1812,  National Gallery of Art.

"There appears no doubt that the column which bears the hieroglyphs contains the same inscription as the other two. Thus, here is a means of acquiring certain information of this, until now, unintelligible language.”

~ Napolean Bonaparte, 1799