Ivory CipherPhonograms
Sound signs
𓂋𓈖
Sound · rSound · n
rn · name
Most signs stand for consonants. The mouth is r and the water ripple is n: together they spell rn, ‘name’. Some signs hold two or three consonants at once.
Egyptian hieroglyphs · Middle Egyptian
Ivory Cipher
ʿnḫ wḏȝ snb · life, prosperity, health
Learn to read hieroglyphs the way Egyptologists do — one sign at a time. Tell sound signs from word signs and silent classifiers, take 23 real inscriptions apart, and keep all 87 signs in memory with spaced-repetition cards.
Calm, scholarly & beautifully gilded
How hieroglyphs work
Signs, not letters
Egyptian writing mixes three kinds of signs: some give sounds, some stand for whole words, and some are silent guides to meaning. Ivory Cipher teaches you to tell them apart.
Logograms
Word signs
𓉐𓏤
Word · houseClassifier · stroke
pr · house
A word sign writes a whole word. The small stroke after the house plan tells the reader to take it as pr, ‘house’, rather than as sounds.
Determinatives
Silent classifiers
𓅭𓏏𓁐
Sound · zȝSound · tClassifier · woman
zȝt · daughter
Classifiers are never spoken. The seated woman at the end of zȝt shows that a female person is meant: ‘daughter’.
Room II · Laboratory
How deciphering works
Every inscription is solved the way a scholar reads a wall: sign by sign, then word by word.
One sign at a time
Each inscription sits on a gold register. The current sign lights up while the others wait their turn.
Decide its role
Does it give a sound, write a whole word or silently classify the meaning? Context decides — the same sign can do all three.
Pick its value
Choose the consonants it carries, the word it writes or the group it marks. Every answer explains itself, right or wrong.
Read and translate
Put the reading together, then translate it. Reach 70 percent and the inscription counts as solved.
Remember it
Mistakes from the lab land in your study cards, so the signs you missed come back for review.
Three rooms
Read, decipher, remember
Glyphs is the illustrated sign list. Decipher holds 23 prepared inscriptions that grow harder step by step. Study brings flashcards, themed tests and the signs you find difficult.
Room I · Sign list
Glyphs
87 signs in Gardiner’s order, each with its roles, readings, sound and the real words it appears in.
- Filter by sound signs, word signs or classifiers
- Search by code, reading or meaning — “htp” finds ḥtp
- Favorites and recently opened signs
Room II · Laboratory
Decipher
Take real words apart sign by sign, then read and translate them.
- 23 inscriptions in five registers
- Names of gods, royal titles and offering formulae
- Commentary and best score for every inscription
Room III · Memory
Study
Spaced-repetition cards, themed tests and your progress.
- Flashcards in Leitner boxes, due when you need them
- Eight themed tests of ten questions each
- Difficult signs, streaks and a 14-day chart
A reading guide
Eight short lessons with live examples: consonants only, phonetic complements, respect that changes the order, which way to read and counting like a scribe.
Honest scholarship
Every sign carries its Gardiner code and is a real Unicode hieroglyph. Where scholars disagree, a note marked Disputed says so instead of picking one view.
Private and offline
No accounts, no ads, no network connections. Your favorites and progress stay on your device. Large signs, calm motion and answer haptics are yours to tune.
Five registers
From first sounds to royal formulae
The inscriptions climb in five registers of growing difficulty, from short words spelled sign by sign to titles and wishes from royal and funerary monuments.
First Sounds
Short words spelled sign by sign with one consonant each.
𓂋𓈖rnname
Signs With Several Sounds
Signs that hold two or three consonants, checked by complements.
𓋹𓈖𓐍ʿnḫlife; to live
Silent Classifiers
Spellings that end in a silent sign showing the kind of word.
𓅭𓏏𓁐zȝtdaughter
Word Signs and Respect
Signs for whole words, and words moved forward out of respect.
𓉐𓉻pr-ʿȝpharaoh, ‘Great House’
Royal Formulae
Titles and wishes from royal and funerary monuments.
𓋹𓍑𓋴ʿnḫ wḏȝ snblife, prosperity, health
The sign list
87 signs in Gardiner’s order
Each sign carries its code from Sir Alan Gardiner’s Egyptian Grammar — G1 for the vulture, S34 for the ankh — the reference Egyptologists still use.
Sound signWord signClassifier
Room III · Themed tests
Eight ways to test yourself
- The One-Consonant Signs
- From Sound to Sign
- Signs With Several Sounds
- Word Signs
- Silent Classifiers
- Role in Context
- Words on Monuments
- Counting Like a Scribe
Contact
Questions, corrections, ideas?
Spotted a reading you would argue with, or a sign you’d like to see in the catalogue? We read every message.
Enter the Archive
Eighty-seven signs, twenty-three inscriptions and a script that was written for more than three thousand years.