Where to see hieroglyphs
The museums, temples, tombs and pyramids of Egypt, and the great Egyptian collections abroad, where you can read the hieroglyphs yourself: what the inscriptions say, which cartouches to find and which signs to look for at each.
Take your phone: the camera boxes the signs on a wall and names them, on the phone, without uploading anything.
Cairo and Giza
Three great museums hold the inscribed statues, coffins and stelae taken from all over Egypt, and the Giza plateau has the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure with the decorated tombs of their courtiers around them.
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square holds some of the most important inscribed objects in Egypt, from the Narmer Palette, with one of the first royal names, to the Merneptah Stela, with the first mention of Israel. You can follow the script here from its beginnings to long New Kingdom texts.
MuseumGrand Egyptian Museum
The Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza pyramids holds Tutankhamun's complete burial treasure, much of it covered in hieroglyphs. It is the best place to read one king's names again and again, in gold, wood and stone.
MuseumNational Museum of Egyptian Civilization
The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat is home to Egypt's royal mummies. For hieroglyph lovers it puts faces to the cartouches you read on temple walls, and shows how Egyptian writing changed over thousands of years.
SiteGiza Pyramids
The three pyramids of Giza are almost bare of writing, but the tombs of the royal family and officials around them are full of hieroglyphs. Here you see Old Kingdom writing at its cleanest: names, titles and offering formulas from the courts of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.
At Giza Pyramids: Great Pyramid of Khufu · Great Sphinx of Giza · Tomb of Meresankh III
Memphis, Saqqara and Dahshur
South of Cairo lies the cemetery of Egypt's first capital: the Step Pyramid, the first texts ever carved inside a pyramid, and Old Kingdom tombs whose walls show daily life, with every scene labelled in hieroglyphs.
Memphis (Mit Rahina)
At Mit Rahina, on the site of ancient Memphis, you can read the cartouches of Ramesses II carved deep into a colossal statue, at arm's length. A small open-air museum around it holds statues, stelae and blocks from the city's temple of Ptah.
SiteSaqqara
Saqqara has the oldest religious texts carved in Egypt, the Pyramid Texts of Unas, and Old Kingdom tombs whose walls are covered with captioned scenes of daily life. It is the best place in Egypt to read hieroglyphs from the age of the pyramids.
SiteDahshur
At Dahshur the pyramids carry almost no carved text: what you can read are builders' marks in red paint and the cartouche of Sneferu, who built the Bent and Red Pyramids here around 2600 BC. The great inscribed finds from the site are in museums.
At Saqqara: Step Pyramid of Djoser · Serapeum of Saqqara · Pyramid of Unas · Pyramid of Teti · Mastaba of Ti · Mastaba of Mereruka · Mastaba of Ptahhotep and Akhethotep · Tomb of Horemheb at Saqqara · Imhotep Museum
At Dahshur: Bent Pyramid · Red Pyramid
Luxor (ancient Thebes)
The capital of the New Kingdom: temples on the east bank covered in royal inscriptions, and on the west bank the painted tombs of kings, queens and the craftsmen who built them.
Luxor Museum
Luxor Museum holds royal statues and stelae from Thebes whose hieroglyphs are among the crispest in Egypt. You can read the cartouches of Amenhotep III, Thutmose III and Akhenaten at arm's length, in calm, even light.
SiteKarnak Temple
Karnak has more royal hieroglyphs in one place than anywhere else in Egypt: battle texts, obelisks, chapels and the cartouches of dozens of pharaohs. It was the great temple of the god Amun, built and rebuilt for about 2,000 years.
SiteLuxor Temple
Luxor Temple shows how one temple collected the names of its builders: Amenhotep III's cartouches in the sun court, Tutankhamun's festival reliefs, Ramesses II's pylon and obelisk, and Alexander the Great written as a pharaoh.
SiteValley of the Kings
The Valley of the Kings holds the richest painted religious texts in Egypt: the books that guided a dead pharaoh through the night, written on the walls of New Kingdom royal tombs on Luxor's West Bank.
SiteTemple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahari)
Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari tells the story of a woman who ruled as king (c. 1479–1458 BC) in fine painted reliefs, and shows where later kings chiselled her name away.
SiteDeir el-Medina
Deir el-Medina's small painted tombs hold some of the freshest, most readable hieroglyphs on the West Bank, made by the craftsmen who decorated the royal tombs for their own families.
SiteMedinet Habu
Medinet Habu has some of the deepest-cut and most colourful hieroglyphs in Egypt, on the memorial temple of Ramesses III (c. 1186–1155 BC), the best preserved temple on the West Bank.
SiteRamesseum
The Ramesseum is the best place to learn to read the names of Ramesses II (c. 1279–1213 BC): his memorial temple repeats them in huge carved cartouches, beside the Kadesh battle reliefs and the fallen colossus behind Shelley's 'Ozymandias'.
SiteValley of the Queens
The Valley of the Queens holds painted tombs of New Kingdom queens and princes, with some of the brightest hieroglyphs in Egypt, above all in the tomb of Nefertari (QV66).
At Valley of the Kings: Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) · Tomb of Seti I (KV17) · Tomb of Ramesses VI (KV9) · Tomb of Thutmose III (KV34)
At Deir el-Medina: Tomb of Sennedjem (TT1) · Tomb of Inherkhau (TT359)
Abydos to Abu Simbel
Temples along the Nile from Abydos, with the finest carving of Seti I, to the Greek and Roman temples of Dendera, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae, where the last hieroglyphs were carved, and Ramesses II's Abu Simbel.
Abydos
Abydos was the holy city of Osiris and a royal burial ground from the very start of Egyptian history. For hieroglyph lovers it has everything: some of the oldest writing known, the famous King List, and the finest painted relief of the New Kingdom.
SiteDendera Temple Complex
Dendera's Temple of Hathor is one of the most complete temples in Egypt, covered inside and out with late hieroglyphs. Here you can find Cleopatra VII's cartouche, an astronomical ceiling and texts in hidden crypts.
SiteTemple of Edfu
The Temple of Horus at Edfu is the most complete temple in Egypt, and almost every surface is inscribed. Its texts describe the temple itself, its rituals and the battle of Horus against Seth.
SiteTemple of Kom Ombo
Kom Ombo is a double temple on the Nile, shared by the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Haroeris. Its walls carry a carved festival calendar, crisp Ptolemaic reliefs and Roman cartouches.
SitePhilae Temple
Philae, the island Temple of Isis near Aswan, is where hieroglyphic writing ended: its last dated inscription was carved here in AD 394. Its walls also helped Champollion decipher the script.
SiteAbu Simbel
Abu Simbel is a pair of temples cut into the rock by Ramesses II, one for himself and the gods, one for Nefertari and Hathor. Its walls tell the battle of Kadesh, and its façade writes the king's name as a giant rebus.
Museums outside Egypt
Some of the most famous inscriptions left Egypt long ago: the Rosetta Stone in London, Nefertiti in Berlin, obelisks in the squares of Rome, and whole tomb chapels in Turin, Paris and New York.
Neues Museum, Berlin
Berlin's Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection fills the Neues Museum on Museum Island, and its Amarna rooms let you read the cartouches of Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their god, the Aten. Around them are offering stelae, coffins and papyri from every period of the script.
MuseumGregorian Egyptian Museum, Vatican Museums
The Vatican's Egyptian rooms hold real pharaonic inscriptions beside Roman copies of Egyptian art. You can read the cartouches of Persian kings on the statue of Udjahorresnet and the title 'king's mother' on a colossal statue of Queen Tuya.
SiteEgyptian obelisks of Rome
Rome has more ancient obelisks than any city in Egypt, and most are covered in hieroglyphs: cartouches of Thutmose III, Seti I, Ramesses II, Psamtik II and Apries. A few were made in Roman times with new texts for emperors, and some carry no writing at all.
MuseumBritish Museum, London
The British Museum has one of the largest Egyptian collections outside Egypt, and you can read its hieroglyphs from the Rosetta Stone to painted coffins. Room 4 alone holds the stone and a colossal Ramesses II.
MuseumLouvre, Paris
The Louvre's Department of Egyptian Antiquities, mostly in the Sully wing, holds a whole Old Kingdom tomb chapel, the cartouches of several kings on one sphinx and a painted stela you can read sign by sign. Champollion himself was its first curator.
MuseumMuseo Egizio, Turin
Turin's Egyptian Museum is one of the great collections of written Egypt: carved statues of kings, a whole rock temple of Thutmose III, the intact tomb goods of Kha and Merit, and papyri like the Turin King List.
MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Met's Egyptian galleries let you walk through an Old Kingdom tomb chapel and a whole Roman-era temple, the Temple of Dendur, where the emperor Augustus appears as pharaoh with cartouches. The statues of Hatshepsut from her temple at Deir el-Bahari carry her names in full.