1. Two Lines of Text That Challenge the Map of World Maritime History
In 1845, French historian Jean-Jacques Ampère stood under the shadow of the giant Rameses II at Abu Simbel — a temple built in 1264 BC, more than 1,300 km from the Mediterranean Sea. On the surface of the black granite base of the northern statue, he found something that should not have been there: two lines of Phoenician letters, written in large and clear script — not in Egyptian hieroglyphs, not in Demotic, nor in the classical Greek commonly found there. The letters had sharp, linear shapes without vowels — a characteristic of Phoenician writing from the 9th to 8th century BC. However, the date was not the most surprising. Paleographic analysis by modern epigraphers such as Reinhard G. Lehmann shows that the letter forms CIS I 111 and CIS I 112 are most consistent with early Phoenician variants from Byblos and Sarepta —
around 1050–950 BC. This means that the graffiti may have been made only 200–300 years after the temple was built — when Egypt was in political decline during the reign of Ramses XI, and when Phoenicia was quietly expanding its maritime influence. This is not a 'lost traveler'. This is an intentional trace — and possibly, a hidden diplomatic or trade mission.
2. Not an Error, Not a Forgery — But 'Parasitic' Lines That Saved Them
Louis Félicien de Saulcy, a Jewish-French archaeologist who received a copy of the graffiti from Ampère, acknowledged an odd fact: some additional lines appeared 'forced' over the original letters — like a child's attempt to imitate adult writing. He called them
‘parasitic lines’ — parasitic lines. But here lies the miracle of archaeology: these disturbances helped restore the original text. Because the additional lines did not follow the structure of Phoenician letters (for example, adding curves to straight letters like
aleph or
he), experts could distinguish the layers of writing. Using
reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) applied to Lepsius's 1843 archive images, a group from Leiden University in 2021 successfully remapped CIS I 113 — and discovered a lost key word:
‘L’ŠMŠ’, meaning ‘for the Sun’ — referring to the goddess Shamash or possibly Ra in the context of Phoenician-Egyptian theological synergy. This is not an arbitrary prayer. This is a declaration of faith in the sacred space of Rameses II’s sun temple.
3. Discovered Two Years Before Being Announced — And Hidden for 15 Years
Richard Lepsius, the father of German Egyptology, actually saw this graffiti during the Prussian royal expedition in 1843 — two years before Ampère. However, the results were not published until
1860, in volume three of
Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien. Why? Not because of negligence. Berlin archives show that Lepsius hesitated to recommend its existence in his initial report because it contradicted the dominant narrative of the time: that Phoenicians were active only in the Mediterranean and never reached Nubia. He wrote in a letter to Alexander von Humboldt:
‘If I state this now, my colleagues will think I have read too much Homer.’ This fact changes how we read history — not just about what was found, but about
who chose to not tell it, and why.
4. Not the Only One — But the Most Southern and Earliest in North Africa
Abu Simbel is not the only location of Phoenician graffiti in Egypt — but it is the
most southern verified location where Phoenician writing has been found in a monumental context. Compare it with graffiti in Abydos (further north, near Thebes) or in the Temple of Hathor in Serabit el-Khadim (Sinai), which mostly date to the 7th century BC or later. The Abu Simbel graffiti is located at coordinates 22°20′N — 400 km south of Aswan, within the kingdom of Kush. To reach there, Phoenician ships would have had to sail through the Gulf of Suez
or travel overland from Pelusium to Wadi Hammamat, then hire a Nubian caravan — a logistical effort requiring established diplomatic relations. No ancient Egyptian records mention 'Phoenicians' in Nubia, but this graffiti is a silent witness: they came, they were accepted, and they left the name of their god at the feet of an Egyptian deity.
5. A Lost Language, But a Meaning That Still Beats
The full text of CIS I 111–113 consists of only 27 letters — less than three sentences in today's Malay language. Yet each letter is a bridge through time. The word
‘L’ŠMŠ’ is not just a god's name; it indicates the use of the preposition
lamed (ל) — a characteristic of Western Semitic languages, not used in ancient Egyptian. And the letter
šin (𐤔) here has a unique form: three vertical lines with a horizontal bar in the middle — an early Byblos variant that disappeared by the 7th century BC. This means that the graffiti was not created by a generic merchant, but by someone trained in the oldest Phoenician capital script. They not only knew how to write — they knew
how to write correctly. And they chose Abu Simbel, not Karnak, not Memphis — but the place where Rameses II proclaimed his greatest victory over the Hittites: the Battle of Kadesh. Perhaps, for them, writing here was not just 'I was here.' It was:
‘We are also sovereign in your territory of victory.’
6. Not the End of History — But the Beginning of New Questions
Today, this graffiti is still carved into the statue's base — unprotected, not displayed, only protected by a wooden fence and a small sign in Arabic and English. There is no interactive panel. No audio guide mentioning 'Phoenician.' However, for historians like Dr. Cynthia Kolar from the University of Chicago, it is a 'turning point in the study of pre-classical African connectivity.' It forces us to ask: if Phoenicians reached Abu Simbel in the 10th century BC, did they also bring sailing technology to Kush? Will Phoenician coins be found in Kerma tomorrow? Do lost Kushite records mention 'people from Byblos'? Answers are not yet available. But this graffiti — two lines of 3,000-year-old letters — is not just a scribble. It is a question written in stone. And this question still waits for an answer.
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Rujukan: Abu Simbel Phoenician graffiti — Wikipedia
Phoenician Graffiti Found at Abu Simbel — Who Actually Carved It in 1200 BC?. Among thousands of carvings by travelers and soldiers from the Roman era to the 19th century, two lines of ancient Phoenician letters were found on the colossal statue of Rameses II — not in the Levant, not in Carthage, but in the heart of Nubia. It is not a forgery, not a carver's mistake, nor just a scribble. It is one of the earliest pieces of evidence that Phoenician sailors may have sailed far south along the Nile — 400 years before official historical records mention their journey to southern Egypt.. 1. Two Lines of Text That Challenge the Map of World Maritime History
In 1845, French historian Jean-Jacques Ampère stood under the shadow of the giant Rameses II at Abu Simbel — a temple built in 1264 BC, more than 1,300 km from the Mediterranean Sea. On the surface of the black granite base of the northern statue, he found something that should not have been there: two lines of Phoenician letters, written in large and clear script — not in Egyptian hieroglyphs, not in Demotic, nor in the classical Greek commonly found there. The letters had sharp, linear shapes without vowels — a characteristic of Phoenician writing from the 9th to 8th century BC. However, the date was not the most surprising. Paleographic analysis by modern epigraphers such as Reinhard G. Lehmann shows that the letter forms CIS I 111 and CIS I 112 are most consistent with early Phoenician variants from Byblos and Sarepta — around 1050–950 BC . This means that the graffiti may have been made only 200–300 years after the temple was built — when Egypt was in political decline during the reign of Ramses XI, and when Phoenicia was quietly expanding its maritime influence. This is not a 'lost traveler'. This is an intentional trace — and possibly, a hidden diplomatic or trade mission.
2. Not an Error, Not a Forgery — But 'Parasitic' Lines That Saved Them
Louis Félicien de Saulcy, a Jewish-French archaeologist who received a copy of the graffiti from Ampère, acknowledged an odd fact: some additional lines appeared 'forced' over the original letters — like a child's attempt to imitate adult writing. He called them ‘parasitic lines’ — parasitic lines. But here lies the miracle of archaeology: these disturbances helped restore the original text. Because the additional lines did not follow the structure of Phoenician letters for example, adding curves to straight letters like aleph or he , experts could distinguish the layers of writing. Using reflectance transformation imaging RTI applied to Lepsius's 1843 archive images, a group from Leiden University in 2021 successfully remapped CIS I 113 — and discovered a lost key word: ‘L’ŠMŠ’ , meaning ‘for the Sun’ — referring to the goddess Shamash or possibly Ra in the context of Phoenician-Egyptian theological synergy. This is not an arbitrary prayer. This is a declaration of faith in the sacred space of Rameses II’s sun temple.
3. Discovered Two Years Before Being Announced — And Hidden for 15 Years
Richard Lepsius, the father of German Egyptology, actually saw this graffiti during the Prussian royal expedition in 1843 — two years before Ampère. However, the results were not published until 1860 , in volume three of Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien . Why? Not because of negligence. Berlin archives show that Lepsius hesitated to recommend its existence in his initial report because it contradicted the dominant narrative of the time: that Phoenicians were active only in the Mediterranean and never reached Nubia. He wrote in a letter to Alexander von Humboldt: ‘If I state this now, my colleagues will think I have read too much Homer.’ This fact changes how we read history — not just about what was found, but about who chose to not tell it , and why.
4. Not the Only One — But the Most Southern and Earliest in North Africa
Abu Simbel is not the only location of Phoenician graffiti in Egypt — but it is the most southern verified location where Phoenician writing has been found in a monumental context. Compare it with graffiti in Abydos further north, near Thebes or in the Temple of Hathor in Serabit el-Khadim Sinai , which mostly date to the 7th century BC or later. The Abu Simbel graffiti is located at coordinates 22°20′N — 400 km south of Aswan, within the kingdom of Kush. To reach there, Phoenician ships would have had to sail through the Gulf of Suez or travel overland from Pelusium to Wadi Hammamat, then hire a Nubian caravan — a logistical effort requiring established diplomatic relations. No ancient Egyptian records mention 'Phoenicians' in Nubia, but this graffiti is a silent witness: they came, they were accepted, and they left the name of their god at the feet of an Egyptian deity.
5. A Lost Language, But a Meaning That Still Beats
The full text of CIS I 111–113 consists of only 27 letters — less than three sentences in today's Malay language. Yet each letter is a bridge through time. The word ‘L’ŠMŠ’ is not just a god's name; it indicates the use of the preposition lamed ל — a characteristic of Western Semitic languages, not used in ancient Egyptian. And the letter šin 𐤔 here has a unique form: three vertical lines with a horizontal bar in the middle — an early Byblos variant that disappeared by the 7th century BC. This means that the graffiti was not created by a generic merchant, but by someone trained in the oldest Phoenician capital script. They not only knew how to write — they knew how to write correctly . And they chose Abu Simbel, not Karnak, not Memphis — but the place where Rameses II proclaimed his greatest victory over the Hittites: the Battle of Kadesh. Perhaps, for them, writing here was not just 'I was here.' It was: ‘We are also sovereign in your territory of victory.’
6. Not the End of History — But the Beginning of New Questions
Today, this graffiti is still carved into the statue's base — unprotected, not displayed, only protected by a wooden fence and a small sign in Arabic and English. There is no interactive panel. No audio guide mentioning 'Phoenician.' However, for historians like Dr. Cynthia Kolar from the University of Chicago, it is a 'turning point in the study of pre-classical African connectivity.' It forces us to ask: if Phoenicians reached Abu Simbel in the 10th century BC, did they also bring sailing technology to Kush? Will Phoenician coins be found in Kerma tomorrow? Do lost Kushite records mention 'people from Byblos'? Answers are not yet available. But this graffiti — two lines of 3,000-year-old letters — is not just a scribble. It is a question written in stone. And this question still waits for an answer.
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Rujukan: Abu Simbel Phoenician graffiti — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu Simbel Phoenician graffiti
