History and Theory of Architecture 1

BAAR1134

Week 4
Egyptian Architecture

Assoc. Pof. Dr. Fadzidah Abdullah

Introduction…

Pyramid
Timeline…

Pyramid
Location… Mediterranean Sea

Egypt lies in the Northeast of

the African continent at the
edge of Sahara desert,
bordering the Mediterranean
Sea, the Sinai Peninsula and the
Red Sea.

The key to the story of Egypt is

the Nile. The Nile is the river
River Nile
with a singular characteristic
that it never dries up and
constantly filled up by the White
and Blue Niles from the upper
course i.e. the great lakes of
Central Africa (Lake Victoria)
and the mountains of Ethiopia.
Location…

The Delta “It is the characteristic of the Nile

that contributes to the civilization of
Egypt that the Egypt is some time
called as “The Gift of the Nile”. The
fertile strip on either side of the Nile
averages only 12 miles wide.
Egyptians learned to built
sophisticated irrigation systems and
dikes to maximize the use of the Nile.
The mouth of the Nile forms a wide
Delta as it enters the Mediterranean
Sea. “

The Geometry of Immortality: Ancient Egypt. The story of

Architecture, Patrick Nuttgens. Phaidon. 1997 2nd Edition.

Fertile strip
The Land… • Egypt is divided into the Southern Part
known as “Upper Egypt” and a
northern Part known as “Lower Egypt”.

• Egypt is protected by natural

boundaries on all sides; the
Mediterranean Sea to the North; the
Sahara Desert to the West; the Nubian
Desert and Swamps to the South; and
the Red Sea and Sinai Peninsula to the
Lower Egypt East.

• It was at the two distinct topographical

areas into which the river divides, that
provided the basis for the division of
Ancient Egypt into Lower and Upper
Upper Egypt Kingdom.

Land of Dead Land of Living

SAQQARA
Writing System …
Hieroglyph: haɪərɵɡlɪf/ : Sacred Carvings

The Rosetta Stone.

Chronology…

Generally, Egyptian history is divided into six main historical eras.

They are: -

Period Significant Events

Archaic or Thinite Period

– Ancient Egypt: http:/www.crystalinks.com/egyptian.html. andA History of Western Society, John McKay, Bennet D.Hill, John Buckler, University of Illinois, 3rd Edition.

(3100 –2660 BC)

The Old Kingdom or Pyramid Age Construction of the Pyramids

( 2660-2180 BC)
First Intermediate Political Chaos
( 2180 –2080 BC)
The Middle Kingdom Recovery and Political Stability
( 2080-1640 BC)
2nd Intermediate Period Hyksos (Asian) “invasion”
( 1640-1570 BC)
The New Kingdom or Empire Creation of Egyptian Empire,
( 1570-1075 BC) Akhenaten’s religious policy

TIMELINE OF ANCIENT EGYPT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z17Y5u9iGPQ
Context…

The Social, Cultural, Religious, Political & Economical Backgrounds

The People…

• The Ancient Egyptians were agrarians.

• They lived in fear of the nature that surrounded them in their

day to day life of the sun, the moon and stars; fertility and the
grave.

• In doing their crops they hoped for sustenance from the river
of life- the Nile, from floods and other catastrophes.

– , R.Furneaux Jordan.1997, Western Architecture World of

Art,Thames&Hudson
The People..

The Funerary Scene

• In doing so they created a complex hierarchy of gods and the strange religion
for themselves as a safeguard for their close society.
• Their belief in the rebirth after death became their driving force behind their
funeral practices.
– , R.Furneaux Jordan.1997, Western Architecture World of Art,Thames&Hudson
The People..

The Funerary Scene

• The Egyptians believed that death was simply a temporary interruption,

rather than complete cessation of life, and that eternal life could be ensured by
means of piety/devotion to the gods, preservation of the physical form through
Mummification, the provision of statuary, and other funerary equipment.
Religion

• They believe that their Pharaohs are gods

represented in person.

• With Pharaoh as god person, it is only

customary for the Pharaoh to marry his
sister or half sister to acquire a god-son or
god-daughter for heritage of the throne.

• Sometime Pharaohs are also the high priest

all in one. In the long lineage of the
pharaohs, only one king i.e. King
Akhenaton whose wife was the famous
Nefertiti, changed their religion to
worshipping the Sun, the Solar God - Ra.
Religion

• This affair was short-lived as their son, King Tutankhamen, changed

the religion back to the former religion of god King.
• In later years the priest, the priestess and some nobleman became more
powerful than the kings.
• The changes in religion and the uprising of priests and noblemen in the
reign of Ancient Egypt can be illustrated from the remnants of tombs
and the writings of the later years.
Ref: R.Furneaux Jordan.1997, Western Architecture World of Art,Thames&Hudson
Life After Death…

• They believed in life or survival after death on preservation of the body.

Immortality was only for the privileged royal and priestly beings, except that a
servant might hope to be a servant in the world beyond the stars, in eternal
servitude to his master.
• In this belief, the normal Egyptians subdued to creating monuments for their
king or pharaohs as gods without force. The subordinates were willing to
sacrifice their life for a share in the afterlife.
Life After Death…

• At the day of resurrection the spirit or Ka

of the dead man would enter once more
into his body; the body must be there,
intact, ready for the moment.

• In pre-historic times the fact that the dry

desert sand had helped to preserve the
body might be the reason why the western
bank of the Nile edging the Sahara desert
was called the ‘good burial’ ground.

• This idea was an obsession for 3000 years.

The act of embalming became highly skill
job and one of the most important sciences
in the world’s first civilization.
Life After Death…

Other organs of the body were kept in jars

Life After Death…

Other organs
of the body
were kept in
jars
Architecture of the Death..

• It followed logically, once the corpse was embalmed or mummified, that it

must be preserved in an impregnable tomb.
•
• To achieve the criteria on an impregnable tomb was the challenge and indeed
the basis of the Egyptian Architecture-the Tomb and Temple Architecture .
Architecture of the Death..

• The trend though diluted in later years with political un-stability like the Asian
community in Egypt were known as “Hyksos”, and invasion from outside who
overpowered the Egyptian rule, both powers did continue the Egyptian culture
and trends with building of temples and monuments.
• The Greeks and the Romans, including “Alexander the Great”, followed the trend
with the reinstatement and reconstruction activities of the Egyptian Architecture.
Architecture…

Rameses II, Tomb

Temple , Abu
Simbel.

• As the application attends to their beliefs of durability for afterlife, the

structures made were therefore colossal.
• The gigantic scale which distinguishes Egyptian Architecture was made
possible not only by the materials, but also by the methods of quarrying,
transporting and raising enormous blocks of stone into position.
Architecture…

A tomb painting of Nubians and Asians making bricks- that would be used to
rebuild the workshops of Amun at Karnak. Mud is mixed, using a hoe, and loaded
into a basket. It is then carried to the men in the upper-right corner, who use a
mold to shape the mud into bricks. Below them, a man tightens a hoe next to a
stack of bricks, and another man carries finished bricks in a sling. The painting
comes from the Theban tomb of an official named Rekh-mi-Re and dates to circa
(around) 1470-1445 B.C.E.
Building Materials…

• The most common building material that was used to build the houses of the
common people was mud. Primitive architecture in the valley of the Nile
consisted of readily available tractable materials like reeds, papyrus (now
practically extinct) and palm-branch ribs, plastered over with clay.
• However, to make the temples and the royal monuments they used stone
quarried form different mines.
Building Materials…

• Quarrying was done with copper tools and by the use of timber wedges which,
when swollen by water, split the blocks away from the natural rock.
• Drilling and sawing were known from early times. Palaces, houses and most
buildings other than tombs or temples were constructed of large, sun-dried
bricks
• Burnt bricks were introduced during the Romans.
 Building Materials…

• There were no metal mine in Egypt.

Thence it has to be imported from
other countries. For buildings, the
stones used were the limestone,
sandstone and some alabaster as soft
stone with granite, quartz and basalt as
harder stone.
Building Materials…
• Foremost use in the earlier periods
were the limestone from quarries of
Tura and Ma’sara in the Mokattam
Hills, south of present Cairo city.
• Granites were quarried from Aswan,
which is further south of the
Mukattam hills. Sandstone, being the
hardest stone then was mined at
Silsila. The stone were used in most of
the temples at the later period.
Building Materials…

• There was very little timber used in the massive construction.

• Whatever remnants left of timber such as acacia was used as boats, sycamore
for mummy cases, indigenous date palm in logs for roofing, palm leaves, reeds
and rushes for framing or as a reinforcement for mud-brick constructions
other than mats for paneling, partitions and fences.
Development of Cities…

• Egyptians were slow to develop cities. The earliest approximation to cities

available were cities of the dead, with streets of tombs, some times modeled like
little houses, laid out in grid pattern.
Development of Cities…

• Living cities only figured out in the Old Kingdom (2686 – 2181 BC) where the
Pharaohs commanded the building of a town to house workers working on his
pyramid or on other public works, as in the narrow grid of little box dwellings
for Necropolis workers at Deir el-Medina, on Theban west bank.
Architecture…

• The houses of noblemen were luxurious with loggias and gardens, fountain
and ornamental tanks for fish, used to keep out mosquitoes, and suites of
many rooms, enclosed behind mud walls. The mud brick walls were supposed
to keep out the floodwaters of the Nile.
Architecture…

• Most dwellings on the eastern bank of the Nile were made from mud brick
and there are no remains today. Little flat almost two-dimensional models
called “Soul Houses” found in tombs suggest that they were not so very
different from those lived today.
Architecture …

• An impregnable tomb for the dead for the after life had to be provided in more
than one form i.e. security for the dead or cadaver and security for the man’s
possessions - his wives, furniture, food and jewels.
• The tomb thence was the treasure trove of the object d’ art of Ancient Egypt
awaiting a second existence at the resurrection.
• The tomb was not only meant as an impregnable structure but also act as a
store-house, a temple/chapel and a work of art.
Architecture …

• The Egyptian tomb had not only to be durable but must look durable
throughout the time until resurrection.
• In other words, the design concept of the tomb was not only that it should look
strong but must also be strong from the harshest of weather as well as to
prevent thieves whom were after the treasure beneath.
Architecture …
Architecture …

• The philosophy of the design was to

keep the body intact for the
afterlife.

• The material and knowledge

available then determine the
method of constructions to achieve
those results.

• Thus the emergence of the

architecture of Mastabas, the
Pyramids, the Mortuary Temple and
others in sequential order as the
impregnable structures!
 Architecture/ Mastaba…

A mastaba, (meaning "house for eternity" or

"eternal house"), is a type of ancient Egyptian
tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular
structure with outward sloping sides that marked
the burial site of many eminent Egyptians of
Egypt's ancient period. Mastabas were
constructed out of mud-bricks or stone
Architecture…
• Externally there was a recess simulating a
blocked-up door. It is through this false
door the Ka or soul could return to the
body.
• The recess also served as a small chapel
where offerings could be made to the dead,
and where the priest could say prayers for
the repose of the soul
• The Mastaba was faced with limestone
blocks brought from the mountains
bordering the Nile Valley. These were finely
and accurately cut for their place in the
Mastaba of Mereruka, Saqqara
sloping walls.
Architecture…
• Functionally the mastabas were designed to
achieve permanence.
• Aesthetically it was designed to look
permanent in an impressive way.
• The fine stone cutting of the mastaba was
the start of the masonry tradition in
architecture. It was clearly the embryo or
basis of the pyramids with the little recess
Mastaba of developed later as a small chapel in Upper
Mereruka, Egypt i.e. Luxor.
Saqqara

Mastaba of Prince Rahatep and his wife, Nofret, at

Meidum, Egypt.
 Step Pyramids…

The Black Pyramid at Dashur

Step Pyramid of Zoser, Saqqara

- A Mastaba construction was found not

durable enough from the prying hands
of the treasure hunt at that time that a
pyramid was soon designed.
- The first “pyramid” (Step Pyramid)
was built as early as c.2680 BC, at
Saqqara or “Sakkara”, between
Memphis and the Nile.
 Step Pyramid…

Zoser tomb temple complex(2680 BC), Saqqarra

• It was actually a tomb complex that included building of embalming
chapels around the tomb for preservation process prior burial.

Store Houses Mortuary Temple

STEP PYRAMID
Administration
Ceremonial Court

Shrines of
Upper & Lower
Hall of Pillars
Egypt
Double throne
South Tomb

Entrance
Pyramids…
 Bent Pyramids…

Medium Pyramid,
Pharaoh Sneferu,, 2613-
2589 BC.

Ref: S.Douglas. Strategies and Structures for Presenting World History, Amana Publications
 Bent Pyramid (Dashur)…

• The angle of the sides of the southern

pyramid at Dashur was changed from 54˚
31 to 43˚ 21 somewhere halfway the
• In the 4th Dynasty (?) there was a “Bent building, resulting in the unique shape of
Pyramid of Snefaru” or Snofru at Meidum this so-called “Bent Pyramid”.
and Dashur. • It was argued that the angle was decreased
• The Bent Pyramid represents the last stage in order to decrease the mass of the
leading to the development of the true pyramid, fearing it would crumble
pyramid. otherwise, or in order to diminish the
workload.
The Mortuary Complex of Giza…
Pyramids of Giza…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omajagaozk0
The Pyramids of Giza

Chephren

Cheop

Mykerinos

The Queen’s Pyramid

 During Cheop’s or Khufu’s reign, the funerary monument and the royal
burial ground was moved from Dashur to Giza i.e north of the capital
Memphis.
 It is during this reign the Great Pyramids of Ancient Egypt were constructed.
Ref- History of Arcchitecture I -Lisa M.Snyder
http:www.aud.ucla.edu/¬lms/slidlist/1-list01
Pyramids at Giza…  The tallest and biggest pyramid of the three at
Giza belongs to Cheop’s (Khufu).
 The smallest pyramid of the three belongs to
Cheop’s grandson, Mykerinos (Menkaura).
 The three small pyramids at the foot of the
bigger pyramids were for the queens.

 The Great Pyramid contained six and a quarter million

tons of stone.
 Each polished blocks of 2 feet by 6 feet weighed about 2
½ ton.
 The pyramid (khufu) was 480 feet (147 m)
high with sides of the square base measuring
756 feet (230 m) length.
 The joint between each stone was 1/15 th of an
inch.
 The mathematical error was 0.03%.
 Provisions were also made by the Architect to
include the wives, concubines other members
of the family in the burial.
 Once settled entrances were closed usually at
an unspecified distance up north of the
pyramid.