Hieroglyphs are the ones everybody knows, since it's got all the "cool" people and animal like signs that show up on the giant monuments. But, with all these fancy signs, it could be a real pain to write. Thus, "true" hieroglyphs were usually limited to painted or inscribed monuments like the tomb of Seti I.

Can people still read hieroglyphics?

Because of their pictorial form, hieroglyphs were difficult to write and were used only for monument inscriptions. They were usually supplemented in the writing of a people by other, more convenient scripts. Among living writing systems, hieroglyphic scripts are no longer used.

Are hieroglyphics understood?

Ancient Egyptian forms of writing, which included the hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic scripts, ceased to be understood in the fourth and fifth centuries AD, as the Coptic alphabet was increasingly used in their place. ... He was convinced, however, that phonetic hieroglyphs were used only in writing non-Egyptian words.