Hieroglyphics were the formal, pictorial writing system of ancient Egypt, used for monumental inscriptions and religious texts.

The script consists of hundreds of signs that can represent whole words (logograms), sounds (phonograms), or serve as clarifiers (determinatives).

The name 'hieroglyph' comes from the Greek for 'sacred carving,' reflecting its use on temples and tombs.

For daily use, scribes used a cursive script called hieratic, and later, a script called demotic.

After the fall of ancient Egypt, the ability to read hieroglyphics was lost for over a thousand years.

The key to decipherment was the Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799 by French soldiers.

The Rosetta Stone contained the same text written in three scripts: hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek.

French scholar Jean-François Champollion is credited with the final decipherment of the script in the 1820s by comparing the different texts.

Scribes were a highly respected class in Egyptian society, and literacy was not widespread.

The decipherment of hieroglyphics unlocked the history, religion, and culture of ancient Egypt.