Egyptian Hieroglyphs

ancient Egypt · writing systems · symbols

Over 1,000 characters. Egyptian hieroglyphs weren't just pictures, they combined images with sounds and whole word meanings all at once, making it one of the most complex writing systems ever created.

Built our alphabets. Hieroglyphs led to the Phoenician alphabet, which spread around the world and eventually became the basis for Latin, Greek, Arabic, and many other alphabets we use right now.

Written on everything. Egyptians carved hieroglyphs onto temple walls and monuments, but they also developed a cursive version called hieratic for writing faster on papyrus scrolls.

One of four originals. Egyptian hieroglyphs, cuneiform, Chinese characters, and Mayan script are the only four major writing systems that were invented completely independently without copying from somewhere else.

Unlocked ancient mysteries. For centuries, nobody could read hieroglyphs until the Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799, giving scholars the key to understanding ancient Egyptian civilization.