Writing

The Egyptians wrote things down by using picture signs. These are called hieroglyphs. Some hieroglyphs showed the meaning of words, for example wavy lines would mean water. Other hieroglyphs stood for sounds, as our letters do. The hieroglyphs used in the tombs were very detailed, but for everyday writing it was easier to use a quicker, more joined-up version.

The Egyptians used the reed stems of a plant called papyrus to make a type of paper. The reed grows along the river Nile, and the Egyptians made the paper by flattening and drying the stems. The flattened stems were stuck together to make pages. The writing on the papyrus was done using another reed, which was sharpened and dipped into ink.

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