How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself

If you are interested in reading Egyptian hieroglyphs, this is really a good book to study. There is complete information about the nature of this kind of writing - a mixture of symbolic and phonetic writing - with a dictionary and exercises to test your newly acquired knowledge in deciphering coded message. Lots of fun.

This is a great book if you're going on a tour of Egypt and want to learn a little about hieroglyphics so you won't be completely illiterate while exploring the tombs - your guide on any official tour should be able to read them, but won't have time to explain everything. You won't get bogged down for months - it's geared for words and phrases you are likely to find in tombs.

I studied the first three chapters then scanned and combined the tables in the back of the book into a two-sided, one-page cheat sheet to carry with me into the tombs. It made my trip much more enjoyable and people on our tour were always asking me what it said next to an interesting drawing - I could usually get at least the gist of it: "He's making an offering of beer and other things to a god...", etc.

A great example is when our tour was at Luxor, in the Temple of Karnak, and I noticed that on many of those large pillars (it's a "forest" of pillars without a roof) the hieroglyphics for "life" (the ankh) and "give" (a tiny triangle in an isosceles triangle) were repeated over and over at ever higher places as you walked around the pillar. The temple was dedicated to the god Amun Re. Suddenly, I realized the meaning: while following those words, your eyes were being lifted to Amun Re, the Sun god, who "gave life" - it was as if someone from over 3000 years ago suddenly reached out and talked to me.

This book was absolutely worth it. I've studied Ogham as well as Mayan Hieroglyphs, and as an archaeologist I can say this this book is great for beginners.

I've always been interested in this area but baulked at trying to learn Heiroglyphs as a hobby. No book can do the learning for you but the exercise based system in this book certainly makes it easier.

Do the exercises, follow the lessons and practice. You'll be amazed at how quickly you will be able to recognise the individual glyphs in an inscription.

If you want to learn heiroglyphs, then a well thumbed version of this book is a must for your bookshelf.

This is a very interesting book, After the first chapter I was able to piece together my first hieroglyphics. It was Amazing!!! This book is like going to a classroom, each chapter advances you to a different level of reading Hieroglyphics. If you like Ancient Egypt, And want to understand more ...Then this is the book for you.