Papyrus is made from the inner pith of the papyrus plant stem, which is cut into strips, layered, pressed, and dried to form sheets.

What papyrus is made of

  • Papyrus comes from the Cyperus papyrus plant, a tall reed that grew abundantly in ancient Egypt, especially in the Nile delta.
  • The material part is the white, fibrous inner pith of the stem, not the tough green outer rind.
  • This pith is rich in cellulose and fibrous bundles, which give the finished papyrus both strength and flexibility.

How that pith becomes papyrus

  1. The outer rind of the papyrus stem is peeled away to expose the inner pith.
  1. The pith is sliced lengthwise into thin strips, typically several centimeters wide and up to about 40 cm long.
  1. One layer of strips is laid side by side, slightly overlapping, on a flat surface.
  1. A second layer is placed on top at right angles, creating a criss‑cross grid.
  1. The layers are dampened and pressed; natural plant sap and the breakdown of the cells act like glue to bond the strips into a single sheet.
  1. The sheet is then dried under pressure and polished smooth with a hard object like a stone or shell.

Extra detail: not the ink

  • When people ask “what is papyrus made of,” they sometimes also mean the whole finished scroll. The writing itself was usually done with carbon‑based black ink or iron‑oxide red ink on top of the papyrus sheet.
  • But strictly speaking, papyrus as a writing material is the pressed and dried plant pith, without needing any added cloth, wood pulp, or modern paper chemicals.

In short, papyrus is basically carefully arranged and pressed strips of papyrus plant pith, glued together by their own sap.

TL;DR: Papyrus is made from thin strips of the inner pith of the Cyperus papyrus plant stem, laid in criss‑cross layers, pressed so the plant sap glues them, then dried and polished into writing sheets.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.