The words of the gods
Learn to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
Hieroglyphs look like pictures, but they work like a writing system. This site teaches that system one sign at a time — the sound signs, the meaning signs, and the rules that join them — then lets you practice until you can read them yourself.
What are hieroglyphics?
Hieroglyphs are the sacred script of ancient Egypt — medu netjer, “the words of the gods.” Each sign is a small picture, but the pictures do not simply mean what they show. Most stand for sounds, a few stand for whole words, and some are silent clues to meaning. Egyptian wrote only consonants, so scholars add helper vowels to say the words aloud.
- ꜣ
- i
- y
- ꜥ
- w
- b
- p
- f
What this site teaches
Four steps take you from your first sign to reading real inscriptions.
The sound signs
Master the uniliteral “alphabet” and the biliteral and triliteral signs that spell Egyptian words.
The meaning signs
Learn the determinatives that sit silently at the end of a word and tell you what it is about.
How it fits together
See how phonograms, logograms, and determinatives combine into real words and sentences.
Practice until it sticks
Drill every family with flashcards and games, and follow a guided path from beginner to advanced.