The script was developed about four thousand years before Christ and there was also a decimal system of numeration up to a million. Unlike other cultures the early picture forms were never discarded or simplified probably because they are so very lovely to look at. This was a handwriting in which the picture signs were abbreviated to the point of abstraction Hieroglyphs are written in rows or columns and can be read from left to right or from right to left. You can distinguish the direction in which the text is to be read because the human or animal figures always face towards the beginning of the line. Also the upper symbols are read before lower.
Alphabetic signs represent a single sound.
Unfortunately the Egyptians took most vowels for granted and did not represent them. So we may never know how the words were formed. Syllabic signs represent a combination of two or three consonants. Word-signs are pictures of objects used as the words for those objects. A determinative is a picture of an object which helps the reader.