Basic facts about ancient Egypt.
Egyptian hieroglyphics are in great abundance throughout Egypt.
They were essentially indecipherable until 1799 when in Alexandria the trilingual Rosetta Stone was discovered. Champollion completed the work begun by Young and correctly deciphered the complete stone. He also established the original language of the Rosetta stone was Greek, and that the the hieroglyphic text was a translation from the Greek. This could explain the unnecessary complexity, in face of the fact that obviously simplifications would certainly have occurred if writing were designed for all citizens. The demotic script was for more general use, the hieroglyphics continued to be used for priestly and formal applications.