Mysterious Egyptian Parking Lot

527 S Marquette Avenue

If you look closely at the facade around and underneath the skyway leading into the parking lot next to the art deco Rand Tower, one of downtown Minneapolis finest buildings, you will find a strange mystery. Here in the off-color red brick stone surrounding the skyway and doorway, are carved seemingly ancient and mysterious symbols. Carved here in the rich red stone are figures of humans and animals performing ancient rites, weirdly out of character with the rest of the building.

Where did these carvings come from? Who placed them here? Did ancient Egyptians travel to Minneapolis and erect parking lots? Are these carvings connected in any way to the famous nordic runestone, that some speculate was brought to western Minnesota by early Vikings? Perhaps these are the carvings of aliens, akin to farm field crop circles? Perhaps these markings are connected to the tour of King Tut artifacts that came to the Twin Cities in 2010?

One can speculate. The answer, less magically, is that this Egyptian doorway was once the entrance to a bank that stood here on Marquette Avenue. It was called the Scandinavian Bank, and was first built in 1925 before becoming part of a parking garage. When the parking lot was built, the architects preserved part of the old building.

But why the Scandinavian Bank designers decided to add egyptian symbols to their doorway? That remains a mystery.

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