Egyptian picture-writing is known as  HIEROGLYPHICS. This language is made up of about 750 signs, with pictures of people, animals and objects. until hieroglyphics was deciphered in modern times, it was not known that most of the picture represented sounds and syllables, not whole words. Scribes used a quick form of writing which was called hieratic. The Egyptians were also good in maths, particularly geometry, which they use in architecture and surveying. They drew up an accurate 12-month calendar of 365 days, and used water clocks to measure time.