This strange sounding word actually describes a form of picture writing used by the ancient Egyptians.
The Egyptians used about 1000 pictures or hieroglyphs to express this thoughts. Each hieroglyph stood for an object, sound or idea. The hieroglyphs were written on paper called papyrus, made of reeds. Gradually, people stopped using hieroglyphs, and in time everyone forgot what the pictures meant. Then, in 1799a stone called the Rosetta Stone was found which had writing in three languages, including the hieroglyphic language.
A Frenchman named Jean Francois Champollion was able to translate the hieroglyphs, and now scholars of ancient Egyptian civilization can read hieroglyphs. If you want, you can learnt it too when you grow up!
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