Hieroglyphs are the writing system used in ancient Egypt since approximately the forth millennium before Christ until the forth century of this era.
The hieroglyphic writing consists of many symbols: pictograms (representing objects), ideograms (representing ideas) and phonograms symbols (representing sounds). Hieroglyphs were carved on stone or painted on the walls of temples. A simplified version was used on papyrus. In the beginning, the writing was used for special purposes such as official or religious texts, not for everyday activities.
Hieroglyphics are written in raws (read from left to right or from right to left, depending on the direction of the symbols) or columns (read from top to bottom). Signs representing vowels were generally omitted, although sometimes were used to avoid ambiguity.
Only priests, members of the royal family, senior members and scribes knew how to use this complicated writing, being the scribes the most expert.
Only the names of gods and kings were enclosed into cartouches as a symbol of protection and power.
Now, each of you is going to decipher a cartouche with the name of a classmate, then you can write in Egyptian hieroglyphs whatever you want by clicking on this image.
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.