Whats a Hieroglyph?
When Ancient Egytians were living, about 5,000 years ago, the way they chose to put their language in writing was by using symbols. For example, they used 0 to mean “sun”. But when they needed to write down more complicated ideas their language improved and changed. 0 was a good sign for “sun”, but how would you write “sunny” or “sunspot” or “sunburn”? Insead of making new signs the Egyptians would just combine one hieroglyph with another to make new words. So in addition to being pictures, hieroglyphs were also sounds. In time, the Egyptians started combining one sound with another to make new words. We do the same thing in English. We have twenty-six letters in our alphabet that represent a lot of different sounds. We combine these to make words. The Ancient Egyptians had hundreds of different sounds and letters. The Egyptians used hieroglyphs to write stories and letters. They used them to decorate tombs and temple walls. They carved them on large stones to record the orders and wor
