Dozens of exquisite color photographs of ancient sites, artifacts, texts, and wall paintings, as well as focus features, timelines, and chronology, make the history of hieroglyphics come vibrantly alive. In fascinating detail, this authoritative discussion covers the origins of the Egyptian language and its alphabet; three millennia of writing; the mysteries of the hieroglyphs; and the efforts to decipher this most elaborate and beautiful pictorial language. Every breathtaking example, from burial texts to handwritten and stone-carved images, illuminates exactly what hieroglyphs meant to the ancient inhabitants of the Nile Valley and to the early scholars who struggled to decode their script.