Support

Questions about the app, the scanner or your purchase? Write to info@babala.ch — please say which iPhone and which iOS version you use, and, for a scan that went wrong, attach the photo if you can.

What the scanner can and cannot do

It can find the individual signs in a photographed inscription and give each one its name, its sound value and its meaning; read the royal name inside a cartouche and tell you which king or queen it belongs to; and recognise the stock formulas that appear on almost every wall, such as “Son of Ra”, “Lord of the Two Lands”, “given life forever” or “an offering which the king gives”. It shows a confidence value for every sign it reports.

It cannot translate a whole text. Egyptian is a language, not a code: word order, missing vowels, determinatives and centuries of change mean that a running translation needs a philologist, not a phone. The app is a reading aid and says so wherever it shows a result. Hieratic and demotic cursive writing, and Coptic, are not recognised either — only hieroglyphs.

Frequently asked questions

How do I scan an inscription?

Open the Scanner tab and point the camera at the hieroglyphs. The app captures a still image, finds the signs in it and opens a result sheet with the signs, any royal name it recognised and the formulas it found. You can also tap the photo-library button at the bottom left to analyse a picture you already took — a museum photo, a screenshot or a page from a book.

I have no wall in front of me. Can I try it anyway?

Yes. In the Scanner tab, tap the sparkle-stack button at the bottom right (“Try an example”) and choose, for instance, the cartouche of Ramesses II. You get exactly the same result sheet as from a live scan.

Tips for a good scan

Fill the frame with one line or one cartouche rather than a whole wall. Small signs in a wide shot are the most common reason for a poor result.
Hold the phone parallel to the surface. Strong perspective distorts the signs.
Even light is better than bright sun: hard shadows in sunken relief can look like extra strokes.
Tap the screen to focus, and wait until the image is sharp before you capture.
Painted, weathered or restored surfaces are harder than clean carved stone. If a sign is wrong, look it up in the sign list and continue by hand.
For a cartouche, include the full oval ring. The ring is what tells the app that a royal name is inside.

Why does one cartouche give me several rulers?

Because that is the historical truth, not a bug. Kings reused names: there are eleven kings called Ramesses, and several called Thutmose, Amenhotep or Ptolemy. Many rulers also had five different names, and the same throne name can appear in more than one dynasty; weathering can hide exactly the one sign that would distinguish two of them. When more than one ruler matches the signs the app has read, it lists all of them with its confidence rather than picking one at random. The site you are standing in, the neighbouring cartouche and the epithets around it usually settle the question — and each ruler page tells you where his or her names are found.

Which signs are recognised?

The recogniser knows 239 signs — the ones that actually carry the weight on monumental walls: the 24 one-consonant signs, the common two- and three-consonant signs, the frequent determinatives and the signs that make up royal names. The searchable sign list in the School tab holds 245 — those 239 plus six that appear in the course vocabulary and have a reference card of their own. Every sign is shown inside real royal names, so you can always check a machine reading by eye. The hieroglyphic repertoire as a whole is far larger; rare signs will not be recognised.

Does the app need an internet connection?

No. All texts, images, the sign list and both recognition models are inside the app, and the scanner runs entirely on your device. The only part that uses the network is the map tab, which loads Apple Maps tiles; without a connection the 76 place descriptions still work, only the map background stays empty.

Which languages does the app speak?

Thirteen: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Hindi and Indonesian. The app follows the language set on your iPhone — change it under Settings → General → Language & Region, or per app under Settings → Egypt → Language.

How do I get the app back after a new iPhone, or restore my purchase?

Egypt: Hieroglyphics Scanner is a paid app with no in-app purchases, so there is nothing to restore inside the app. Sign in to the new device with the same Apple Account that bought the app and download it again free of charge: App Store → your account picture → Purchased → find the app → the cloud button. If the App Store asks you to pay a second time, you are almost certainly signed in with a different Apple Account.

My learning progress is gone

Progress in the hieroglyph course is stored on the device only — there is no account and no server copy — so deleting the app deletes the progress with it, and a new iPhone starts at level one unless you restored from an iPhone backup (iCloud Backup or a computer backup restores it along with everything else).

The camera stays black

iOS is blocking camera access. Open Settings → Egypt and switch Camera on. The camera is used only to take the picture that is analysed; nothing is recorded or uploaded.

I found a mistake in a date, a name or a translation

Please tell us — info@babala.ch. Chronology in the app follows I. Shaw (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt; where scholars disagree, the app says so. Corrections with a source are very welcome and go into the next update.

Are the pictures real photographs?

Both kinds appear, and they are always labelled. Photographs of real monuments come from Wikimedia Commons and are credited image by image in School → About & image credits. Atmospheric scenes are illustrations, generated with a licensed iStock AI Generator account, and are marked as illustrations.

How do I contact you?

By e-mail at info@babala.ch.

Babala Özdemir
Unterer Rainweg 22
4414 Füllinsdorf
Switzerland
info@babala.ch · 076 222 45 99

Last updated: 20 September 2026.