Any look at hieroglyphs and art in tombs and temples reveals a wealth of information about animals living in the Nile, on the river banks, in the deserts and in the skies. Some creatures were extremely dangerous and had to be hunted or kept at bay by magical spells.

A famous gilded statuette from the Tomb of Tutankhamun represents the Pharaoh on a canoe throwing his spear at a hippopotamus – though the hippo is not shown in case it came to life and wrecked the king’s treasures. Sometimes hieroglyphs showing vipers were deliberately mutilated by being cut in half so that the snake could not bite the tomb-owner in the afterlife.

Lions were naturally regarded with awe, and Pharaohs emphasised their prowess by leading expeditions to hunt them – one king killed more than 100 lions in the first ten years of his reign. But the lion also represented the sacred creature of the Sun-god – as in the Great Sphinx of Giza, which has the body of a lion and the head of the Pharaoh whose pyramid it guards. Sakhmet, the goddess with a woman’s body and the head of a lioness, was a vengeful deity who, according to a myth inscribed on one of the gilded shrines over the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun, almost destroyed mankind.

It seems that the Egyptians viewed the domesticated cat as an approachable and appeasable lion, and turned her into one of their most popular goddesses. In hieroglyphs the word for cat actually captures the sound of a cat’s miaow. Splendid bronze statues of stately cats were dedicated in the goddess’s temples, and hundreds of thousands of mummified cats were buried in nearby cemeteries. Sometimes the supply of dead cats did not keep up with the demand from pilgrims wanting to purchase a mummy to honour the goddess.

X-rays have revealed that some cats and kittens were garrotted before being covered with finely designed linen wrappings and sold to unsuspecting visitors. To add insult to injury, in the 19th century many cat mummies were used as fuel for steam trains.

Except for the jackal-god Anubis, dogs were not the subject of a special cult. There is, though, a depiction of a hunting dog which can be identified as a greyhound-type animal similar to those still bred today.

Birds in hieroglyphs and paintings show the keen observation of Egyptian artists. All are recognisable, from the majestic falcon with whom the Pharaoh identified to the comical duckling that figures in the word for prime minister. Once the sacred ibis – manifestation of Thoth, god of wisdom – visited Egypt on its migrations in millions, but no longer. It symbolises Thoth’s other role as the Moon-god perfectly, its curved beak suggesting the lunar crescent.

Horses were introduced by invaders from the Middle East more than 1,500 years after hieroglyphs had been invented, so the scribes had to practise hard at drawing the new animal.

Despite their presence in Hollywood films, camels arrived late on the scene in Ancient Egypt. Although there was plenty of scope for humour in drawing this preposterous-looking animal, the scribes never gave it a hieroglyph.

The earliest cartoons in the world are pictures of animals on Egyptian papyri, portraying a topsy-turvy world in which cats lovingly tend geese, jackals play flutes and a lion and an antelope peacefully enjoy a board game.

George Hart is an Egyptologist, formerly of the British Museum

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