c. 3200 BCE — 394 CE · Ancient Egypt
Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Sacred carvings of the Nile
The writing of priests — 1,000+ signs fusing logograms, phonograms, and determinatives, chiseled across temple, tomb, and papyrus.
Table of Contents
Begin reading →- 01Coming Forth By Day — The Opening1mPrimary
- 02The Hymn to Ra at Dawn1mPrimary
- 03The Negative Confession1mPrimary
- 04The Weighing of the Heart2mPrimary
- 05The Field of Reeds1mPrimary
- 06The Opening of the Mouth2mKeeper's
- 07The Gates of the Duat1mPrimary
- 08The Final Becoming2mPrimary
Primary — authentic public-domain translation · Keeper's — interpretive synthesis authored for this app
The Rosetta Stone
196 BCE decree in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek — the trilingual key Champollion used in 1822 to crack the code after 14 centuries of silence.
Cartouches
Oval rings enclosing royal names — the first to be decoded, since their vowels could be guessed from Greek transliterations.
Book of the Dead
A collection of spells (c. 1550 BCE) guiding souls through the Duat — the afterlife — past demons and the judgment of Osiris.
Alphabet · Glyphs
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