Egyptians were a very advanced civilization due to their inventions and technology. Egyptians developed a writing system called hieroglyphs that combined pictures and symbols. Eventually, they created an alphabet from their symbols. In 1822 CE a European explorer found what is called the Rossetta Stone (left picture)--a stone with the same message written in 3 different languages, which finally allowed historians to translate ancient hieroglyphs. Egyptians developed a 365-day calendar and used a number system based on 10. Egyptians figured out amazing ways to cut stone to use in their temples and obelisks. An obelisk is a tall narrow monument that becomes more narrow as it goes up. They created a writing material similar to paper called papyrus from reeds found in the Nile. Egyptians were excellent ship builders and excelled at mathematics. They used fractions, decimals, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and basic ideas of geometry. Egyptian art and architecture is famous and has been reused and copied by many other civilization including Greece, Rome, and even the United States