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Hieroglyphics is a type of writing written in symbols or pictures. Hieroglyphics means “sacred carvings” in the Greek language. Ancient Egyptian writings are called hieroglyphics. They lasted for more than 3,000 years . Ancient Egyptians also used hieroglyphics for religious inscriptions, kind of like the Bible, and wrote on temples, stone, and monuments. They copied words of kings and queens. Egyptians called their words the words of their gods. Also, some hieroglyphics are read from left to right instead of right to left.  They knew which way to read them by the way the animals were facing.              The Rosetta Stone was a piece of black stone about the size of a small coffee table.  It provided a key to the puzzle of the lost ancient Egyptian language.  It was discovered in 1799 by French soldiers near the city of Rosetta on the Nile delta.  It had three different types of language on it.  One was Greek, and the other two were forms of Egyptian language.  Scholars were able to read the Greek, but after twenty years, they still were not able to figure out the Egyptian.  One of them was hieroglyphics, but they did not know the meaning.  Jean Champollin finally discovered that the characters once stood for sounds.  This was the key to the mystery language.  Scholars were then able to translate the writing off the walls of tombs and pyramids.  The Rosetta Stone has helped us learn much about the ancient Egyptian people.