Readers read toward the front of the characters. If a bird or human symbol looks to the right, the text is read from right to left.

Early scholars incorrectly believed the script was entirely symbolic. In reality, many hieroglyphs function phonetically to represent specific consonant sounds.

The oval shape depicts a looped rope tied at one end. This boundary was intended to magically protect the pharaoh's enclosed name from evil spirits.

The stone features the identical decree carved in three distinct scripts. Scholars used the readable Ancient Greek text to decode the mysterious hieroglyphs.