Real examples of Egyptian hieroglyphs
 (the page load is a bit slow) 


© 2004..2008, Fabio Vassallo


Page in phase of enhancement
(from time to time I add a few more signs)

Report of any inaccuracies will be highly appreciated
 

This pages shows a selection of hieroglyph pictures (taken from monuments, stelas, tomb walls, etc.) trying to cover the most important signs of Gardiner's list; I've collected these picture to help my skills in drawing the hieroglyphs correctly, but I think they could help other people as well.
In few cases the signs belong to the extended library.

I've included the most detailed examples I could find, scanning the sharpest pictures of some books.
I've tried to include different styles (both coloured and not coloured glyphs); I've given preference to New Kingdom instances, but I've also included earlier and later examples. Often I've included more than one picture for the same Gardiner sign.
In some cases (e.g. G7) the glyph I present wasn't part of a text but it was rather belonging to the pictures surrounding the texts (anyway it's an enlarged version of the sign that is used in words spelling).

In order to present all the glyphs homogeneously facing toward right, I've mirrored the pictures of signs facing toward left (unless the sign is perfectly symmetrical, e.g. X1); mirrored pictures are marked with _M.
In many cases I've erased signs that were nearby the glyph I wanted to show (e.g.: ) and sometimes I've eliminated a few little imperfections of the background.
I've also unified the size of the signs (stored as JPEG pictures). So, the longest side of big, horizontal and vertical sign pictures is 128 pixels, while the longest side of small sign pictures is 64 pixels.

The Egyptian source of the signs is written near each picture.
The book source of each picture is indicated using abbreviations referring to the items listed in the bibliography below.
After the abbreviation, it's indicated the page of the book where the picture was extracted.

Concerning the copyright issues see note at the end of this page.

Any possible inaccuracies in this page are my own responsibility.

For any communications you can send me an e-mail:  

 Bibliography

Guid
Maria Cristina Guidotti & Valeria Cortese
Antico Egitto. Arte, storia e civiltà
2002 - Giunti Gruppo Editoriale, Firenze
ISBN 88-09-01818-4

NatG
Gilbert M. Grosvenor (editor):
Ancient Egypt. Discovering its Splendors
1978 - The National Geographic Society, Washington D.C.

Nefe
Christian Leblanc & Alberto Siliotti
Nefertari e la valle delle regine
2002 - Giunti Gruppo Editoriale, Firenze
ISBN 88-09-02701-9

Schu
Regine Schulz & Matthias Sidel (editors)
Egitto. La terra dei faraoni  (Italian edition of Egypt. The land of pharaohs - Könemann)
1997 - Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Köln
ISBN 3-8290-2561-0

Sili
Alberto Siliotti:
Le Grandi Civiltà. Egitto
1994 - Edizioni White Star S.r.l., Vercelli  (title: Egitto. Templi uomini e dei)
2004 - Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso S.p.A., Rome

Writ
Andrew Robinson
The Story of Writing. Alphabets, Hieroglyphs & Pictograms
1995 - Thames & Hudson Ltd., London
ISBN 0-500-28156-4
 

Type
Dr. Alan Henderson Gardiner
Catalogue of the Egyptian Hieroglyphic Printing Type - from matrices owned and controlled by Dr. Alan H. Gardiner
Composed arranged and printed at the University Press, Oxford, 1928
1989 - Reprinted by Ares Publishers Inc., Chicago
ISBN 0-89005-098-8

      The quotations in the notes embedded in the tables are taken from:

Maria Carmela Betrò
Geroglifici - 580 Segni per Capire l'Antico Egitto
3^rd ed. - 1998 - Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., Milano
ISBN 88-04-40389-6
(original Italian edition of Betrò - Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt - Abbeville Press)
[the translation in this page, from Italian to English, has been done by me]

Henry George Fischer
Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy. A beginner's guide to writing hieroglyphs
3^rd ed - 1988 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
ISBN 0-87099-528-6

Sir. Alan Henderson Gardiner
Egyptian Grammar. Being an introduction to the study of hieroglyphs
3^rd ed, revised - 1957 - Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (reprinted many times)
ISBN 0-900416-35-1

Note: the translated quotes are indicated by an asterisk (*) before the quotation mark («).

Hieroglyph tables

 Alphabetic signs   (go to the other signs table )

(note: the phonetic value of the signs is indicated according the European system of transliteration; for a correct visualization of the phonetic values you should install on your computer the Transliteration font by the Centre for Computer-aided Egyptological Research [CCER].)
 

Picture	Phonetic value	Gardiner code	Source	book
	A	G1	Tomb of Ti [ Dyn. V ] Saqqara	NatG 44
	A	G1	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
	A	G1	Internal coffin of Petosiri [ Ptolemaic age ] Tuna el-Gebel	NatG 146
M	j	M17	White chapel of Sesostri I [ Dyn. XII ] Karnak	Schu 136
M	j	M17	Coffin of Sepi [ Dyn. XII ] Deir el-Bersha	Schu 129
M	j	M17	Tutankhamon's internal organs coffin [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 238
	j	M17	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
	y	M17a	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
M	a	D36	Coffin of Sepi [ Dyn. XII ] Deir el-Bersha	Schu 129
	a	D36	Tomb of Ramesse I [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 223
M	a	D36	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Schu 246
D36  -  Fischer:  «The Old Kingdom form shows the full breadth of the palm. Later the palm tended to be slightly cupped as in Gardiner's version. Even in the New Kingdom all the fingers are clearly distinguished in the most detailed examples (e.g. Qen Amūn, pl. 13), but this is also true of signs such as D39. And the most detailed New Kingdom examples often show the hand as in the Old Kingdom (e.g. Ramose, pl. 42).»
M	w	G43	Funerary temple of Mentuhotep II [ Dyn. XI ] Deir el-Bahri	Schu 110
	w	G43	Tutankhamon's golden mask [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 235
	w	G43	Tomb of Haremhab [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 2
	w	G43	Rosetta stone [ Ptolemaic age ] Rosetta	Schu 342
	w	G43	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
M	b	D58	Temple of Montu [ Dyn. XII ] Medamud	Schu 138
M	b	D58	Coffin of Sepi [ Dyn. XII ] Deir el-Bersha	Schu 129
	p	Q3	Tomb of Ptahhotep [ Dyn. V ] Saqqara	NatG 61
	p	Q3	False door of Nakht's tomb [ Dyn. XVII ] West Thebes	Schu 253
	p	Q3	Red chapel of Hatshepsut [ Dyn. XVIII ] Karnak - Temple of Amon	Schu 450
	p	Q3	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
Q3  -  Fischer:  «The height is normally greater than the width. Old Kingdom examples often show the detail of matting […]»
M	f	I9	Temple of Thutmosi III [ Dyn. XVIII ] Deir el-Bahri	Schu 434
	f	I9	Internal coffin of Petosiri [ Ptolemaic age ] Tuna el-Gebel	NatG 146
	m	G17	Tomb of Ptahhotep [ Dyn. V ] Saqqara	NatG 61
M	m	G17	Coffin of Sepi [ Dyn. XII ] Deir el-Bersha	Schu 129
	m	G17	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Schu 246
	n	N35	Shrine of Sesostri I [ Dyn. XII ] Karnak	NatG Cover
	n	N35	Tile inlaid of Ramesse II [ Dyn. XIX ]	Writ 105
	n	N35	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
N35  -  Fischer:  «The number of angular ripples is variable, but the two ends always slant downward. These terminal strokes may be a little longer than the others.»
	r	D21	Relief of Snefru [ Dyn. IV ] Sinai	Schu 40
	r	D21	Tutankhamon's golden mask [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 235
	r	D21	Internal coffin of Petosiri [ Ptolemaic age ] Tuna el-Gebel	NatG 146
D21  -  Fischer:  «When carefully executed, this sign often shows a pronounced narrowing at the corners […] and the top is more curved than the bottom […]»
	h	O4	Tomb of Ramesse I [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 223
	H	V28	Shrine of Sesostri I [ Dyn. XII ] Karnak	NatG Cover
	H	V28	Relief of Sesostri I [ Dyn. XII ] Copto	Schu 327
	H	V28	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
	H	V28	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Nefe 54
	x	Aa1	Coffin of Sepi [ Dyn. XII ] Deir el-Bersha	Schu 129
	x	Aa1	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
	X	F32	Shrine of Sesostri I [ Dyn. XII ] Karnak	NatG Cover
	z	O34	Back of a chair of Tutankhamon's [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	NatG 116
	z	O34	Tomb of Ramesse I [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 223
	s	S29	Tomb of Ramesse I [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 223
M	s	S29	Tomb of Kha-em-waset [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Nefe 50
	s	S29	Internal coffin of Petosiri [ Ptolemaic age ] Tuna el-Gebel	NatG 146
	S	N37	Temple of Montu [ Dyn. XII ] Medamud	Schu 138
	S	N37	Tutankhamon's golden mask [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 235
M	q	N29	Tutankhamon's internal organs coffin [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 238
	q	N29	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
M	k	V31	White chapel of Sesostri I [ Dyn. XII ] Karnak	Schu 136
	k	V31	Tutankhamon's golden mask [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 235
	g	W11	Lintel of Sesostris III's Sed building [ Dyn. XII ] Medamun	Schu 452
	g	W11	Temple of Thutmosi III [ Dyn. XVIII ] Deir el-Bahri	Schu 434
	t	X1	Coffin of Sepi [ Dyn. XII ] Deir el-Bersha	Schu 129
	t	X1	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Schu 246
	T	V13	Funerary stela [ Dyn. II ] Saqqara	Schu 39
M	T	V13	Tomb of Ptahhotep [ Dyn. V ] Saqqara	NatG 61
	T	V13	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
	d	D46	Funerary stela [ Dyn. II ] Saqqara	Schu 39
	d	D46	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
M	D	I10	Tutankhamon's internal organs coffin [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 238
	D	I10	Tomb of Ramesse I [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 223
	D	I10	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
A few hieroglyphic signs that became monoliteral in later times and main variant forms of monoliteral signs
Picture	Phonetic value	Gardiner code	Source	book
	j	Z4	Internal coffin of Petosiri [ Ptolemaic age ] Tuna el-Gebel	NatG 146
	w	Z7	Temple of Horu [ Dyn. XXXIII - Ptolemaic age ] Edfu	Schu 326
	m	Aa13	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
	m	Aa56 (from the extended library)	Temple of Horu [ Dyn. XXXIII - Ptolemaic age ] Edfu	Schu 326
	m	Aa56	Rosetta stone [ Ptolemaic age ] Rosetta	Schu 342
	n	S3	Tomb of Ramesse I [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 223
	n	S3	Rosetta stone [ Ptolemaic age ] Rosetta	Schu 342
	S	N39	Coffin of Sepi [ Dyn. XII ] Deir el-Bersha	Schu 129
Fischer  [ from the notes about N37 ]:  «[…] The detailed Old Kingdom example (Gardiner's N39) shows vertical ripples of water.»
M	k	V31a	Coffin of Sepi [ Dyn. XII ] Deir el-Bersha	Schu 129
	g	W12	Tomb of Merib [ Beginning of dyn. V ] Saqqara	Schu 80
	g	W12	False door of Nikaura and his wife Ihat [ Dyn. V ] Saqqara	Schu 483
	t	U33	Tablet with the seal of the officer Ka-nakht [ Dyn. XIX ]	Schu 352
M	t	U33	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Nefe 168
M	T	V14	Mr. W. J. Bilton [ XX Century ] Messrs. Bannerman & Son, Ltd.	Type 39
I haven't found any good pictures of real examples for the sign above, so far; so I scanned Gardiner's version.       V14  -  Gardiner: «Phon. T , both in hieroglyphic and hieratic, but apparently only in a few words, doubtless words in which the value T had not changed into t […]»

 Other signs   (go to the alphabetic signs table )
 

Picture	Gardiner code	Source	book
	A1	Tomb of Ti [ Dyn. V ] Saqqara	Schu 382
Note: in this image I've corrected the perspective distortion of the original picture	A1	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Nefe 92
	A2	Tomb of Ti [ Dyn. V ] Saqqara	Schu 383
M	A2	Stela of Henu with his sons [ Dyn. XII ] -	Schu 480
A2  -  Gardiner:  «Note the difference from - A1 - in the position of both arms. »
	A8	Tomb of Ramesse I [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 223
Note the different position of the right foot between the signs A1-A2 and A8-A12 (read the note of Betrò related to A12).       Concerning glyph A8, see also the full size image of Ramesse I, with the ba of Pe and Nekhen (Tomb of Ramesse I - [Dyn. XIX] - Valley of the Kings •  Schu 223), in the hnw-posture:
	A12	Tomb of Rahotep and Nofret [ Dyn. IV ] Meidum	Sili 147
	A12	Tomb of Haremhab [ Dyn. XVIII ] Saqqara	Schu 265
A12  -  Betrò: * «[…] The position of the body is tense, whippy, ready to move; it isn't the usual sitting position: the foot of the leg which is on the ground is pointing down. The weight of the body doesn't burden on it while it is distributed on all the muscles, in a tensile balance. […]»
	A40	False door of Nakht's tomb [ Dyn. XVII ] West Thebes	Schu 253
	A40	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Schu 246
	B1	Tomb of Rahotep and Nofret [ Dyn. IV ] Meidum	Sili 147
	B1	Internal coffin of Petosiri [ Ptolemaic age ] Tuna el-Gebel	NatG 146
	B7c (from the extended library)	Tomb of Haremhab [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 2
	B7c	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Nefe 137
M	D4	Tomb of Haremhab [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 2
	D4	Tomb of Ramesse I [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 223
	D4	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Nefe 118
D4  -  Betrò: * «The drawing of the eye is very lengthened, like the glyph roundness had been transposed into the flat surface, obtaining a "stretched" effect. The contours and the iris are usually coloured in black, while for the corners the red is used. […]»
M	D37	Tomb of Haremhab [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 222
	D39	False door of Nikaura and his wife Ihat [ Dyn. V ] Saqqara	Schu 483
D39  -  See also the hands of the full size image of Nefertari (Tomb of Nefertari - [Dyn. XIX] - Valley of the Queens •  Nefe 143), offering two nw jars to the gods:        M
	E34	Funerary temple of Hatshepsut [ Dyn. XVIII ] Deir el-Bahri	Schu 185
	F4	Funerary stela [ Dyn. II ] Saqqara	Schu 39
M	F4	Iunu's offering table [ Dyn. IV ] Giza	Schu 81
	F4	Tutankhamon's golden mask [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 235
	F12	Lintel of Sesostris III's Sed building [ Dyn. XII ] Medamun	Schu 452
M	F12	Tile inlaid of Ramesse II [ Dyn. XIX ]	Writ 105
	F31	Back of a chair of Tutankhamon's [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	NatG 116
	F31	Tomb of Ramesse I [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 223
M	G7	Iunu's offering table [ Dyn. IV ] Giza	Schu 81
	G7	Lintel of Sesostris III's Sed building [ Dyn. XII ] Medamun	Schu 452
M	I6	Standard-bearer statue of Sethi II [ Dyn. XIX ] Karnak - Temple of Amon-Re	Schu 170
	N5	Shrine of Sesostri I [ Dyn. XII ] Karnak	NatG Cover
	N5	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Nefe 54
	N17	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Nefe 54
	O49	Lintel of Sesostris III's Sed building [ Dyn. XII ] Medamun	Schu 452
	R8	Internal coffin of Petosiri [ Ptolemaic age ] Tuna el-Gebel	NatG 146
R8  -  Fischer:  «The top of the pennant is slanted; the bottom, in the Old Kingdom, was usually horizontal, but sometimes also slanted as in Gardiner's version. The pennant consists of strips of cloth, wound around the pole. […]»
	R11	Temple of Thutmosi III [ Dyn. XVIII ] Deir el-Bahri	Schu 434
R11  -  Fischer:  «Normally the top is quadruple, rarely triple […]»
M	R14	Tomb of Haremhab [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 2
M	R19	Tomb of Haremhab [ Dyn. XVIII ] Valley of the Kings	Schu 2
M	R19	Lintel of Sesostris III's Sed building [ Dyn. XII ] Medamun	Schu 452
	S34	Lintel of Sesostris III's Sed building [ Dyn. XII ] Medamun	Schu 452
M	U21	Tile inlaid of Ramesse II [ Dyn. XIX ]	Writ 105
	V31	Tomb of Merib [ Beginning of dyn. V ] Saqqara	Schu 80
	V30	Relief of Snefru [ Dyn. IV ] Sinai	Schu 40
	V30	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Nefe 54
V30  -  Betrò: * «[…] [In the Old Kingdom examples] the hieroglyphs are coloured in green or yellow, to simulate the colour of the vegetal fibres, fresh or dry, and in the inner part of the basket several horizontal lines are drawn, representing the spiral rounds of the twisted fibres. […]»
	W19	Tomb of Nefertari [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Queens	Nefe 54
	X8	Red chapel of Hatshepsut [ Dyn. XVIII ] Karnak - Temple of Amon	Schu 450
	Y1	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44
	Z1	Tomb of Merenptah Siptah [ Dyn. XIX ] Valley of the Kings	Guid 44