Musée Champollion

This brilliant modern museum uses cuneiform tablets, mummies, manuscripts, videos and assorted ancient inscription stones to celebrate the 5300-year history of the written word. It's within the birth home of Egyptologist and linguist Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), whose efforts in deciphering the Rosetta Stone provided the key to understanding hieroglyphics. If you don't speak French, the audioguide is highly recommended (€3).

Behind the museum, the whole pavement of historic place des Écritures is inlaid with a giant black copy of the Rosetta Stone.

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