Hieroglyphics

Only important people are taught to read hieroglyphics, so of course being a high priest I can read and write. Hieroglyphics means “God’s Words” and we carve these words into stone on sacred structures like temples. It’s not an easy task and it takes the carvers a long time to complete their work, you see hieroglyphics are picture words and we have several hundred different ones. What’s more we don’t just carve these words into stone, we write them too and have sacred books like the book of the dead, which is written on papyrus, a kind of paper made from plants. To write on papyrus we use brushes made from reeds and we use different coloured inks. We use red or black for the words and coloured inks for the pictures. Hieroglyphs can be read vertically or side-to-side, left to right or right to left, there is a sign at the beginning of the text that tells you which direction to read from. If the sign points up then read it vertically, if the signs point right then you should read right to left, simple really.