ALTHEA
Hieroglyphics age 11, from VT
W
GirlStoryMag.com • Yearbook 2021
30
hat if instead of writing with letters we wrote with pictures? If you think that it’s crazy and we never wrote with pictures and never will, You’re wrong. These pictures were the writing system in Ancient Egypt. The pictures were later called hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics were really important to ancient Egyptians. Hieroglyphics were used in ancient tombs and on obelisks and in art work about 5,000 years ago. There are not a lot of letters in our alphabet compared to the Egyptians. They used 600 characters in their alphabet. So people who wanted to write had to study for ten years! They were called scribes. After they studied the scribes could start to take jobs. The jobs were usually for business but some lucky scribe got to do jobs for the pharaohs and kings. Pharaohs and kings were like gods to ancient Egyptians. Because of that, people believed that pharaohs and kings could talk to gods. Before they died or traveled to the underworld, they designed and authorized huge tombs for themselves. The tombs had hieroglyphics in them. Some of the messages took years to make. Some of the hieroglyphics were spells ensuring the pharaohs a safe passage to the underworld. One of the most
