9 Writings From Ancient Egypt

Learn what materials the Ancient Egyptians used to write down words on. That now requires years of training to understand.

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1. Magic Spells

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2. LimeStone from 12th Dynasty

Limestone stele from the tomb chapel of Intef, 12th Dynasty (c.1930 BC), Abydos, Egypt. British Museum (EA 572)

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3. Cippus Of Horus

The top half of this stela was skillfully carved in the hard dark stone. On the part below the central figure panel, rows of hieroglyphs record thirteen magic spells to protect against poisonous bites and wounds and to cure the illnesses caused by them. The stela was commissioned by the priest Esatum to be set up in the public part of a temple. A victim could recite or drink water that had been poured over the magic words and images on the stela. As a mythic precedent, the hieroglyphic inscription around the base describes the magic cure that was worked upon the infant Horus by Thoth, the god of wisdom and writing.

4. Pyramid texts

The Pyramid Texts is a famous book on ancient Egypt and is about funerary inscriptions from the early pyramids. One well-known story whose earliest version comes from ancient Egypt is the story of Cinderella. This copy contains a detailed description of the humiliation and torture inflicted on Cinderella by her step-mother.

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5. Ebers Papyrus

Reproduction of a page from the Ebers Papyrus – an Egyptian medical papyrus of herbal knowledge dating to c. 1550 BC. Written in the Hieratic script, a cursive writing system related to cursive #hieroglyphics. The Ebers Papyrus, also known as Papyrus Ebers, is an Egyptian medical papyrus of herbal knowledge dating to c. 1550 BC. Among the oldest and most important medical papyri of ancient #Egypt, it was purchased at Luxor (Thebes) in the winter of 1873–74 by Georg Ebers.

6. Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is inscribed in two languages: Egyptian and Greek, and three texts: hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek. Scholars were fluent in ancient Greek and Demotic, the writing system used by Egyptian scribes of the period. The translation of hieroglyphics, however, remained a mystery. The Rosetta Stone allowed linguists to decipher hieroglyphics by comparing hieroglyphic symbols with a known text. Understanding hieroglyphics opened up almost all ancient Egyptian language and literature to Egyptologists and historians.

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7. papyrus

The pharaonic word for papyrus was tjufy (with mehyt used as a more general term for marsh plants). A hieroglyph in the form of a papyrus plant was used in the writing of the word wadj, meaning fresh, flourishing, and green. An amulet in this shape was worn at the throat for protection and health (

Image From: Met Museum

8. Book of the dead

The Book of the Dead is a collection of 200 magic spells and incantations which were believed to protect the dead person from evil and to guide him on his passage through a kingdom of the dead. Each spell was intended to be used in a specific situation the dead person might encounter on the tortuous path to eternal bliss.

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9. Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Replica from the Tutankhamun Exhibition currently at Brussels

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