The discovery of stone of rosette later called Rosetta stone is an interesting story. The stone was discovered by French troops in Napoleon's military expedition, in 1799 in Lower Egypt, when they were digging foundations of an addition to a fort near town of el-Rashid (Rosetta), in Nile Delta. It was discovered near town of Rosetta (now Rashid), located in Nile Delta about 40 miles northeast of Alexandria, by a Frenchman, Pierre Bouchard, on 15 July 1799. Captain Bouchard, an engineer officer in Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, was supervising reconstruction of an old fort, as part of preparations for defending French from attacks by British and Turkish forces in area. The Rosetta Stone came to light during demolition of a wall in fort. Captain Bouchard saw that polished black basalt stone contained three sections of different types of writing, and recognized its significance immediately. He sent stone to Cairo, to scholars who also accompanied French expedition to Egypt. In 1801, after two years of warding off attacks by British, and after their defeat at Abuquir Bay, French forces in Egypt surrendered. Under terms of Treaty of Capitulation, all antiquities in possession of French, including Rosetta Stone, were ceded to British.

The stone is a compact basalt slab (114x72x28 cm) that was found in July 1799 in small Egyptian village Rosette (Raschid), which is located in western delta of Nile. The stone contained words in three types of writing: Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, which is a shorthand version of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, and Greek. By translating Greek section, scholars were able to learn what hieroglyphs meant. This enabled them to translate inscriptions inside Egyptian temples.