Where do the egyptians start reading?

Answer 1

I guess you are asking about the reading of hieroglyphs.

Signs can be written from left to right, or right to left, or from the top of a register downwards; further, signs are not simply written one after another as in our alphabet, but arranged in compact blocks to make the best use of space.

The trick is to know the direction of the writing by looking at those signs which have an obvious front and back. The mhieroglyph is an owl which has its head turned to the viewer, but its body faces the start of the line of writing; the bhieroglyph shows a leg and foot which always faces the start of the line; the h3t hieroglyph shows the fore-part of a lion which always faces the start of the line; the wr hieroglyph shows a swallow which faces the start and so on.

Another clue is that writing next to a figure of a person or a god almost always reads towards the face of the figure, so if the person faces left, the writing starts on the left and goes to the right.

Of course there are many hieroglyphs without an obvious front and back, such as the 'nx or ankh sign for life.

Having found the start of the line, signs are read in sequence; any signs written one above another are read top first, then bottom. In vertical columns (registers) the signs are again read from the top downwards, taking account of the "facing" hieroglyphs.