Egyptian numbers

This calculator displays a number in the form of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The ancient Egyptian numeral system was used since around 3000 B.C.E. for three to four thousand years. The numeral system description can be found just below the calculator.

Egyptian numbers

Positive number

Number or space-separated Egyptian fraction coefficients

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Hieroglyphs

 

Number with Egyptian fraction

 

Number of hieroglyphs

 

Alternative number of hieroglyphs

 

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The ancient Egyptian numbering system ¹

The ancient Egyptians developed the numbering system based on 10, no doubt because a human has ten fingers. They had the symbols to represent units, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and millions:

Hieroglyph	Value	Description
	1	stroke
	10	hobble for cattle
	100	coil of rope
	1 000	lotus plant
	10 000	finger
	100 000	tadpole (polliwog)
	1 000 000	god Heh
	Many millions (infinity)	lizard with three strokes

The corresponding symbol is repeated to represent a number from 2 to 9, several tens, several hundred, etc.

Scribing order

The ancient Egyptians carved or painted most of their hieroglyphs from right to left, but sometimes the scribing order was reversed. Our calculator produces the numerical hieroglyphs sequence in reverse order with higher degree symbols on the left and lower degree ones on the right. You may recognize the reading order by the figures with face - start reading toward the front of its head.

Egyptian fractions

The ancient Egyptians scribed a fractional number by a sum of unit fractions. For example, number 0.89 (89/100) can be expanded to the sum of unit fractions: 1/2+1/3+1/18+1/900. Read Egyptian fractions for more details.
A special symbol represented 1/2, and the other unit fraction denominators were scribed under the mouth symbol.

Hieroglyph	Description
	1/2 - half
	the mouth symbol was placed over a unit fraction denominator