[antihipocrat]

School left me with the impression that hieroglyphs were primitive constructs - purely logographic and ideographic. It was a shock to later learn that they are also alphabetic and phonetic.

The opportunities for creative expression are amazing in such a system

[jhbadger]

Yes, the system is reminiscent of written Japanese in that way in that a word is sometimes spelled out phonetically, sometimes with an ideograph, and sometimes both for good measure if one or the other isn't viewed as clear enough.

[Pet_Ant]

I have heard it described as not quite an "alphabet" but more like a rebus[1] using an alphabet.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebus

[RataNova]

No wonder the scribes were so highly regarded

[glimshe]

Very few, if any, real world writing systems are purely ideographic.