Crypto-hieroglyphs:
While studying the red granite pillar up close, [Egyptologist Jean-Guillaume] Olette-Pelletier identified several “crypto-hieroglyphs,” which use puzzles, wordplay, or special positioning to convey coded information. He noted that, high up on the side of the obelisk that once faced the Nile, Ramesses is depicted wearing a crown representing the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. Given its position on the obelisk, this hieroglyph would have been nearly impossible to read from the ground. It would only have been legible from the river, where nobles approached the nearby Luxor Temple by boat each year for the Opet festival, which celebrated the pharaoh’s authority. On the side of the obelisk overlooking a processional route used to bring offerings to the god Amun, Ramesses is shown wearing a crown with bull horns, which symbolized divine power. When paired with an image of an offering table, Olette-Pelletier believes, this hieroglyph exhorted viewers to make offerings to Amun to moderate his destructive tendencies. [“Crypto Power,” Daniel Weiss, Archaeology (September/October 2025)]
