Known as the Rosetta Stone ... names among the hieroglyphs, Bankes contacted Thomas Young, an English scholar who had deciphered the cartouche of Ptolemy from the Rosetta Stone.

The stone’s three blocks of alternating script provided the key to deciphering hieroglyphs ... British polymath Thomas Young made a major breakthrough when he discovered the significance ...

Dr Gamal was speaking on the 200th anniversary of the painstaking deciphering of the stone’s text, first attempted by English physicist Thomas Young (1773-1829).