The writing of ancient Egypt is in the form of pictures called hieroglyphs, which means sacred carvings. They can be seen today mainly in 
temples, tombs and other sacred monuments. A hieroglyphic symbol is a picture of an object that stands for a word, idea or sound used by the ancient Egyptians. There are over 700 hieroglyphic symbols. For example, the hieroglyph for ‘writing’ or ‘scribe’ is formed as a brush, a pigment bag, and a palette. For everyday work, scribes used a more joined-up version like handwriting. It is called hieratic, and it was written quickly. Later, an even faster form of writing called demotic was developed.Writing in Egypt was done by scribes, who were trained professionals. They wrote on paper made of papyrus reed, and used thin reed brushes or reed pens to write. These pens were split at the end to hold ink. Making papyrus was a long and laborious process, so student scribes learnt the art of writing on bits of pottery. They were very cheap, and required no special preparation.Scribes were very important people in ancient 
Egypt, since only a few people could write. They held positions of great honour, and were well rewarded for their work.
