HARDAKER: This is the heart and the soul of 5,000 years of history the Egyptian Museum in the middle of Cairo. Every day from all over the world the tourists come to within touching distance of the Pharaohs. There are tens of thousands of pieces here but one is missing the one piece which is the key to all others, the Rosetta Stone.
Egypt has only this replica. The fight is on to get the real one back and to put right a legacy of imperialism.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: It is not the beauty, it is the identity. This is a very important archaeological piece that made the introduction to the Egyptian archaeology and therefore I call it the icon of our Egyptian identity and therefore a piece like this or an object like this should not be outside Egypt, it should be inside Egypt.
HARDAKER: Inscribed 200 years before the birth of Christ, the Rosetta Stone is priceless because it provides the key to deciphering long forgotten hieroglyphics, the written word of ancient Egypt. Theres always been a fight over the Rosetta Stone it started here, 300 kilometres north of Cairo. This is the town of Rosetta, known now by its Arabic name, Rasheed. It was once the major port of Egypt. Its here that the Nile joins the Mediterranean and it was here 200 years ago that Napoleons soldiers discovered and unearthed the Rosetta Stone. They held onto it for two years and studied it. The British then took control of this area and with it possession of the precious stone. The British promptly shipped it out of Egypt to London to the British Museum where it remains to this day.
AYMAN HAMDAN: The French expedition came to Egypt in 1798 and Napoleon sent a group a part of the expedition.
Tour guide Ayman Hamdan knows all about the Rosetta Stone and the 16th Century fort where it was found. Egypts Ottoman rulers used any old bits of rock and stone they could get their hands on to build this fort. They had no idea their building materials included a priceless relic. It took the French to discover that.
AYMAN HAMDAN: While renovating the fort using red bricks, which are used to support the towers, they discovered the Rashid Stone in the tower we are in. This is exactly the place.
HARDAKER: These days few people make the trek to the Stones original home. In the British Museum in London its a different story the real Rosetta Stone is a real crowd puller, a big attraction in a museum full of other peoples treasures. Its the mission of Egypts leading archaeologist to get the Stone back.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: When I came to be the Head of Antiquities, one of my strategies was returning the stolen artefacts and the unique artefacts. Im not saying this now to get publicity or to get anything for Egypt, Im doing this because this is the right thing that should happen.
HARDAKER: Zawi Hawaas is the overlord of Egypts underground. Hes in charge of everything that doesnt move from the giant stone sculptures of the Pharaohs, to the most delicate of artefacts. Zawi Hawaas wants to get back the booty of imperialism and number one is the Rosetta Stone.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: Im just like a guardian to these monuments for everyone and not only for Egypt and I think my duty is to ask for the return of this unique piece, that its place should be Egypt, not England.
HARDAKER: Not that the Stone is much to look at, barely a metre high, its a squat piece of basalt. Its attraction is totally one of the mind.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: Without the Rosetta Stone, the stones will be stones, they will never talk, you will never read any inscriptions, you will never see the seas in front of your life. That stone made everything in ancient Egypt live.
HARDAKER: So its actually unlocked thousands of years?
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: Yes.
HARDAKER: There are three languages chiselled into the Rosetta Stone. On the top are the hieroglyphics; in the middle a translation in the common Egyptian language of the day called Demotic; at the bottom is a Greek translation. A brilliant young Frenchman called Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the code using another ancient language called Coptic.
PROFESSOR SALIMA IKRAM: When he was only 16, he actually managed to tie in the idea that Coptic, the sort of Christian form of Egyptian, was linked to the hieroglyphics. He used this in conjunction with the Greek that he knew and the Demotic on the Rosetta Stone to actually crack the code for the ancient Egyptian script.
HARDAKER: Its said that after Jean Champollion made his breakthrough, he cried out Ive done it then promptly fainted and remained passed out for five full days. Emerging from the stone were the stories of the Pharaohs Ramses, Tutankhamen, Queen Nefertiti how they lived, their fears, their desires. Jean-Francois Champollion also managed to coax from the Stone the sound of hieroglyphics. The sound of the ancient script can still be heard today. Its the language used by Coptic Christians in church.
PROFESSOR SALIMA IKRAM: On a scale from 1 to 10, its probably an 11 because it is really quite extraordinary that someone could, from a jumble of symbols, manage to come up with a language and a grammar which was published as well so not just the words but he sort of broke through the idea that these signs were merely symbols. He understood that they stood for sounds and then also full words themselves.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: You can see beside this we have the statue of Champollion. Its very important for Champollion in Egypt to look at original piece, not to look at the copy. You cannot have a copy of that Rosetta Stone in the Cairo Museum.
HARDAKER: But how to get it back home. Egypt has been making enormous efforts to retrieve all manner of booty taken by all manner of means. In the last three years, its been pursuing objects, big and small, from all over the world. Today two valuable pieces are returning an international police operation discovered them in a private collection in Switzerland.
Waheed Edward is a curator at the Egyptian Museum.
WAHEED EDWARD: Each of the items is priceless I cannot say any price for these pieces because each piece, it can really change Egyptian history.
HARDAKER: Smuggling antiquities from Egypt is big business and when theyre found, they end up here in a room at the back of the Egyptian Museum. Often theyre discovered on the websites of big auction houses. Sometimes people have a twang of conscience and return them in the post.
REHAB GALAL: The antiquity is recovered using the proof of ownership. Recently an antiquity has been recovered from Canberra, Australia through the proof of its Egyptian ownership. This is the latest incident.
HARDAKER: Archaeologist Rehab Galal is one of the backroom workers using the net to catch a thief.
REHAB GALAL: It dont know why so many people are prepared to deal in stolen antiquities. This is not good because the stolen antiquities are the history and the civilisation of our country.
HARDAKER: The Rosetta Stone was taken because an imperial power could do it. It seems that wresting it back might be somewhat more difficult. Two years ago Zawi Hawaas raised the issue when he spoke at the British Museum.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: I just made a speech and I said that Rosetta Stone should come back to Egypt. If you cannot give it to us for good, we can ask it for a lone.
HARDAKER: And what was their reaction?
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: Their reaction was terrible. Not from the Museum people, but from the press. The press attacked me badly, as if this is owned by the English. It is not owned by the English, it is owned by the Egyptian and I did not really request it officially, it was just a speech, a very friendly speech.
HARDAKER: But a reaction which revealed the nasty side of Egyptology. A British newspaper branded Zawi Hawaas King Tut Tut Tut. He was accused of high-handed behaviour and of victimising anybody who crossed him.
TIM SCHADLA-HALL: Zawi Hawaas since he took over in his present job has been to really promote Egyptian identity and Egyptian archaeology and the excitement of Egypt and I think hes been extremely successful in that and extremely influential in terms of his appearances on TV and elsewhere in the media and hes bound, if he doesnt fit into the old school operation, hes bound to create waves by being controversial but thats fine and hes an Egyptian doing it. Maybe we get worried because hes an Egyptian rather than a Brit.
HARDAKER: The British Museum is refusing to speak about the Rosetta Stone. Academic Tim Schadla-Hall appreciates the stakes are high cave into Egypts demands and theres a dangerous precedent to return the icons of other nations.
TIM SCHADLA-HALL: The British Museum is an immensely powerful institution within the governing political elite so everybody says we dont want to give it back. Its Roman imperialism. The Romans did exactly the same, they collected stuff from all over the Roman Empire and stuffed it into Rome in exactly the same way. Its like possessing the gods of other people in a way.
HARDAKER: But where would the Rosetta Stone go? The answer is simple according to tour guide Ayman Hamdan.
AYMAN HAMDAN: The Rosetta Stone is the symbol of the Old Egyptian civilisation. How can this symbol be outside Egypt? It has to be returned, and I hope it is returned to the fort itself.
HARDAKER: Back in Cairo, Zawi Hawaas is sensitive to charges that the Egyptian Museum is already too full to do justice to the Rosetta Stone.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: You have to know one thing that people say Egypt Museums are not great, they dont care about their moments.
HARDAKER: But Zawi Hawaas has big plans to overhaul Egypts Museums, including building a new mega-museum near the pyramids.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: I believe that the Rosetta Stone should be exhibited in the Grand Museum, that the whole world will then come and witness this great museum, the largest museum in the world, and see Rosetta Stone in a special place that can be for everyone.
HARDAKER: Everyone except for those with an unyielding belief that Britain is best. But it seems it will take an effort of Pharaohonic proportions to prize the Rosetta Stone from the grip of greater London.
Egypt has only this replica. The fight is on to get the real one back and to put right a legacy of imperialism.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: It is not the beauty, it is the identity. This is a very important archaeological piece that made the introduction to the Egyptian archaeology and therefore I call it the icon of our Egyptian identity and therefore a piece like this or an object like this should not be outside Egypt, it should be inside Egypt.
HARDAKER: Inscribed 200 years before the birth of Christ, the Rosetta Stone is priceless because it provides the key to deciphering long forgotten hieroglyphics, the written word of ancient Egypt. Theres always been a fight over the Rosetta Stone it started here, 300 kilometres north of Cairo. This is the town of Rosetta, known now by its Arabic name, Rasheed. It was once the major port of Egypt. Its here that the Nile joins the Mediterranean and it was here 200 years ago that Napoleons soldiers discovered and unearthed the Rosetta Stone. They held onto it for two years and studied it. The British then took control of this area and with it possession of the precious stone. The British promptly shipped it out of Egypt to London to the British Museum where it remains to this day.
AYMAN HAMDAN: The French expedition came to Egypt in 1798 and Napoleon sent a group a part of the expedition.
Tour guide Ayman Hamdan knows all about the Rosetta Stone and the 16th Century fort where it was found. Egypts Ottoman rulers used any old bits of rock and stone they could get their hands on to build this fort. They had no idea their building materials included a priceless relic. It took the French to discover that.
AYMAN HAMDAN: While renovating the fort using red bricks, which are used to support the towers, they discovered the Rashid Stone in the tower we are in. This is exactly the place.
HARDAKER: These days few people make the trek to the Stones original home. In the British Museum in London its a different story the real Rosetta Stone is a real crowd puller, a big attraction in a museum full of other peoples treasures. Its the mission of Egypts leading archaeologist to get the Stone back.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: When I came to be the Head of Antiquities, one of my strategies was returning the stolen artefacts and the unique artefacts. Im not saying this now to get publicity or to get anything for Egypt, Im doing this because this is the right thing that should happen.
HARDAKER: Zawi Hawaas is the overlord of Egypts underground. Hes in charge of everything that doesnt move from the giant stone sculptures of the Pharaohs, to the most delicate of artefacts. Zawi Hawaas wants to get back the booty of imperialism and number one is the Rosetta Stone.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: Im just like a guardian to these monuments for everyone and not only for Egypt and I think my duty is to ask for the return of this unique piece, that its place should be Egypt, not England.
HARDAKER: Not that the Stone is much to look at, barely a metre high, its a squat piece of basalt. Its attraction is totally one of the mind.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: Without the Rosetta Stone, the stones will be stones, they will never talk, you will never read any inscriptions, you will never see the seas in front of your life. That stone made everything in ancient Egypt live.
HARDAKER: So its actually unlocked thousands of years?
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: Yes.
HARDAKER: There are three languages chiselled into the Rosetta Stone. On the top are the hieroglyphics; in the middle a translation in the common Egyptian language of the day called Demotic; at the bottom is a Greek translation. A brilliant young Frenchman called Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the code using another ancient language called Coptic.
PROFESSOR SALIMA IKRAM: When he was only 16, he actually managed to tie in the idea that Coptic, the sort of Christian form of Egyptian, was linked to the hieroglyphics. He used this in conjunction with the Greek that he knew and the Demotic on the Rosetta Stone to actually crack the code for the ancient Egyptian script.
HARDAKER: Its said that after Jean Champollion made his breakthrough, he cried out Ive done it then promptly fainted and remained passed out for five full days. Emerging from the stone were the stories of the Pharaohs Ramses, Tutankhamen, Queen Nefertiti how they lived, their fears, their desires. Jean-Francois Champollion also managed to coax from the Stone the sound of hieroglyphics. The sound of the ancient script can still be heard today. Its the language used by Coptic Christians in church.
PROFESSOR SALIMA IKRAM: On a scale from 1 to 10, its probably an 11 because it is really quite extraordinary that someone could, from a jumble of symbols, manage to come up with a language and a grammar which was published as well so not just the words but he sort of broke through the idea that these signs were merely symbols. He understood that they stood for sounds and then also full words themselves.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: You can see beside this we have the statue of Champollion. Its very important for Champollion in Egypt to look at original piece, not to look at the copy. You cannot have a copy of that Rosetta Stone in the Cairo Museum.
HARDAKER: But how to get it back home. Egypt has been making enormous efforts to retrieve all manner of booty taken by all manner of means. In the last three years, its been pursuing objects, big and small, from all over the world. Today two valuable pieces are returning an international police operation discovered them in a private collection in Switzerland.
Waheed Edward is a curator at the Egyptian Museum.
WAHEED EDWARD: Each of the items is priceless I cannot say any price for these pieces because each piece, it can really change Egyptian history.
HARDAKER: Smuggling antiquities from Egypt is big business and when theyre found, they end up here in a room at the back of the Egyptian Museum. Often theyre discovered on the websites of big auction houses. Sometimes people have a twang of conscience and return them in the post.
REHAB GALAL: The antiquity is recovered using the proof of ownership. Recently an antiquity has been recovered from Canberra, Australia through the proof of its Egyptian ownership. This is the latest incident.
HARDAKER: Archaeologist Rehab Galal is one of the backroom workers using the net to catch a thief.
REHAB GALAL: It dont know why so many people are prepared to deal in stolen antiquities. This is not good because the stolen antiquities are the history and the civilisation of our country.
HARDAKER: The Rosetta Stone was taken because an imperial power could do it. It seems that wresting it back might be somewhat more difficult. Two years ago Zawi Hawaas raised the issue when he spoke at the British Museum.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: I just made a speech and I said that Rosetta Stone should come back to Egypt. If you cannot give it to us for good, we can ask it for a lone.
HARDAKER: And what was their reaction?
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: Their reaction was terrible. Not from the Museum people, but from the press. The press attacked me badly, as if this is owned by the English. It is not owned by the English, it is owned by the Egyptian and I did not really request it officially, it was just a speech, a very friendly speech.
HARDAKER: But a reaction which revealed the nasty side of Egyptology. A British newspaper branded Zawi Hawaas King Tut Tut Tut. He was accused of high-handed behaviour and of victimising anybody who crossed him.
TIM SCHADLA-HALL: Zawi Hawaas since he took over in his present job has been to really promote Egyptian identity and Egyptian archaeology and the excitement of Egypt and I think hes been extremely successful in that and extremely influential in terms of his appearances on TV and elsewhere in the media and hes bound, if he doesnt fit into the old school operation, hes bound to create waves by being controversial but thats fine and hes an Egyptian doing it. Maybe we get worried because hes an Egyptian rather than a Brit.
HARDAKER: The British Museum is refusing to speak about the Rosetta Stone. Academic Tim Schadla-Hall appreciates the stakes are high cave into Egypts demands and theres a dangerous precedent to return the icons of other nations.
TIM SCHADLA-HALL: The British Museum is an immensely powerful institution within the governing political elite so everybody says we dont want to give it back. Its Roman imperialism. The Romans did exactly the same, they collected stuff from all over the Roman Empire and stuffed it into Rome in exactly the same way. Its like possessing the gods of other people in a way.
HARDAKER: But where would the Rosetta Stone go? The answer is simple according to tour guide Ayman Hamdan.
AYMAN HAMDAN: The Rosetta Stone is the symbol of the Old Egyptian civilisation. How can this symbol be outside Egypt? It has to be returned, and I hope it is returned to the fort itself.
HARDAKER: Back in Cairo, Zawi Hawaas is sensitive to charges that the Egyptian Museum is already too full to do justice to the Rosetta Stone.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: You have to know one thing that people say Egypt Museums are not great, they dont care about their moments.
HARDAKER: But Zawi Hawaas has big plans to overhaul Egypts Museums, including building a new mega-museum near the pyramids.
DR ZAWI HAWAAS: I believe that the Rosetta Stone should be exhibited in the Grand Museum, that the whole world will then come and witness this great museum, the largest museum in the world, and see Rosetta Stone in a special place that can be for everyone.
HARDAKER: Everyone except for those with an unyielding belief that Britain is best. But it seems it will take an effort of Pharaohonic proportions to prize the Rosetta Stone from the grip of greater London.