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70 free Rosetta Stone trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Rosetta Stone trivia is really three stories in one. The first is ancient: a priestly decree of 196 BC flattering a boy-king, carved in three scripts and stuck in a temple that was later quarried for a Mamluk fort. The second is imperial: French soldiers pulling it out of a wall in 1799, British generals prising it out of a French general's baggage two years later, and a museum in London that has shown it almost every day since 1802. The third is intellectual: two decades of rival scholars staring at cartouches until Champollion ran through the streets shouting that he had it. This quiz covers all three. You will meet Ptolemy V and his murdered parents, the priests at their congress, granodiorite and carnauba wax, Bouchard, Menou and the gun-carriage, Silvestre de Sacy and Åkerblad, Thomas Young's 80 similarities, the Lettre à M. Dacier, the wartime hiding place under a Post Office railway, Zahi Hawass's repatriation demands, and the way 'Rosetta stone' became a metaphor for everything from immunology to a comet mission. Easy questions suit anyone who has seen it through the crowds; expert ones assume you know the museum inventory number. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Rosetta Stone and Champollion, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The stone was found near the delta of which river?
The Nile
It came from a fort on the river's Bolbitine branch, near the port town of Rashid.
Q 02Soldiers of which country's army uncovered the stone while rebuilding a fort?
France
They were rebuilding a fort during their invasion of Egypt; the British took the stone from them two years later.
Q 03The stone is famous above all as the key to reading which script?
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Nobody had been able to read it since shortly before the fall of the Roman Empire.
Q 04Which institution has housed the stone since 1802?
The British Museum
It was too heavy for the floors of the original Montagu House and moved to the sculpture gallery in 1834.
Q 05Which French leader's 1798 invasion of Egypt led to the stone's discovery?
Napoleon
He returned to Europe the following August, abandoning his troops and the stone in Egypt.
Q 06The decree carved on the Rosetta Stone was issued in which year?
196 BC
It dates from the ninth year of the boy-king's reign, a year after his official coronation.
Q 07The decree on the stone was issued on behalf of which ruler?
Ptolemy V Epiphanes
He was still a teenager; the decree established his divine cult and pledged that his birthday and coronation day would be celebrated annually.
Q 08The bottom register of the stone is written in which language?
Ancient Greek
It was the language of the Ptolemaic government, and the starting point for every attempt at decipherment.
Q 09The stone is made of which rock, long misidentified as black basalt?
Granodiorite
Chalk in the letters and a wax coating darkened it; the rock likely came from a quarry at Gebel Tingar near Aswan.
Q 10Which French officer spotted the inscribed slab as soldiers strengthened the fort's defences?
Pierre-François Bouchard
He was a lieutenant strengthening the fort's defences when soldiers demolishing a wall uncovered it.
Q 11The stone had been reused as building material in which stronghold near Rashid?
Fort Julien
The French had renamed the old Mamluk fort; the town itself was known to Europeans as Rosetta.
Q 12In which year was the stone rediscovered by the French?
1799
The French Army of the Orient had invaded Egypt the year before, bringing 151 scholars with it.
Q 13In which city has the stone been on public display almost continuously since 1802?
London
It is the most visited single object in its museum, and its image was the best-selling postcard there for decades.
Q 21Alongside 'Ptolemaios', which royal name did Champollion read phonetically from an obelisk in 1822?
Cleopatra
With two names sharing letters he could quickly build an alphabet of phonetic hieroglyphs.
Q 22In 1823 Champollion confirmed his system by reading which two pharaohs' names in Abu Simbel cartouches?
Ramesses and Thutmose
These were native Egyptian names, far older than the Ptolemies, proving phonetic signs were not just for foreign words.
Q 23In which small town in the Lot department was Champollion born in 1790?
Figeac
His older brother later added the town's name to his own surname to tell the two scholars apart.
Q 14Under the terms of which 1801 agreement did the stone pass from French to British hands?
The Capitulation of Alexandria
General Menou had tried to claim it as his private property; the British refused to lift the siege until he gave in.
Q 15The stone was shipped to England aboard which captured French frigate?
HMS Égyptienne
It landed in February 1802 with orders that it be presented to the King.
Q 16At which English port did the stone land in February 1802?
Portsmouth
It was shown to the Society of Antiquaries in March before being sent to the museum by the end of the year.
Q 17Inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone say it was 'Captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801' and 'Presented by' whom?
King George III
The War Secretary, Lord Hobart, acted for the King in directing it to the museum.
Q 18Champollion announced his decipherment in 1822 in a famous letter addressed to whom?
Bon-Joseph Dacier
The recipient was secretary of the Académie des Inscriptions; the letter was written the same day as the public lecture.
Q 19Which British polymath found the phonetic signs spelling 'Ptolemaios' in the hieroglyphic text?
Thomas Young
He put his findings in the 'Egypt' article of the 1819 Encyclopædia Britannica but could get no further.
Q 20Roughly how many similarities between the hieroglyphic and demotic texts did the British scholar note?
80
Until then the two scripts were thought to be entirely different; he correctly deduced demotic was only partly phonetic.
Q 24What did Champollion reportedly shout on 14 September 1822 before collapsing?
'Je tiens mon affaire!'
He was running to find his brother; the breakthrough came from the verb for 'birth' and new texts from Abu Simbel.
Q 25Champollion's grave in Père Lachaise cemetery is marked by what, erected by his wife?
A simple obelisk
He died of a stroke in Paris in 1832, worn out by his expedition to Egypt.
Q 26How old was Champollion when he died in 1832?
41
His Egyptian grammar and hieroglyphic dictionary were published only after his death.
Q 27At what age was the boy-king honoured by the decree crowned, seven years into his reign?
12
Both a Seleucid war and a revolt in Upper Egypt were still under way at the time.
Q 28The decree was issued by a congress of priests gathered in which city, the ancient capital of Egypt?
Memphis
The choice showed how badly the young king needed the support of the High Priests there rather than of Greek-speaking Alexandria.
Q 29The stele is thought to have originally stood in a temple at which royal town, not where it was found?
Sais
That temple was probably closed around AD 392 when Theodosius I shut all non-Christian temples.
Q 30How tall is the Rosetta Stone at its highest point?
About 112 cm
It is a fragment of a much larger stele; no other pieces were ever found at Rosetta.