A type of pictographic writing called "Heiroglyphs".
Hieroglyphs were used for formal occasions, such as writings on tombs and other religious texts. Hieratic is a cursive and short-hand version of Hieroglyphs first used around the Fifth Dynasty.
At first no one understood the Hieroglyphs but then the Rosetta stone was found. An actually stone with two lauguages carved on to it in three scripts. Egyption and Greek with Hieroglyphs, Demotic and Greek. useing the greek lanuage the code was cracked and now people study Hieroglyphic.