HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

LECTURE 3

A B H I S H E K K . V E N K I TA R A M A N I Y E R
A S S I S TA N T P RO F E S S O R
EGYPTIAN
CIVILIZATION
EGYPTIAN
CIVILIZATION
 The Extents of Egyptian Civilization
NORTH CITY

CENTRAL CITY

SOUTH SUBURB
All the main settlements developed in a linear pattern along the River Nile, which was the
primary resource.
“Just as life arose from the waters of the
primeval sea, so the waters of
the Nile gave birth to the pharaonic
kingdom. A gift to the people of Egypt

Its flood plain was an extensive oasis, a

magnet for life -- human, plant
and animal. Humans were drawn there
because they could grow crops and settle
into permanent villages. The annual
flooding of the Nile deposited nutrient rich
silt on the land, creating all the ingredients
needed to support life and the growth of a
great civilization.”

The settlement of a town had to take two

main considerations into mind The
proximity to a water source and the height it
was built above the flooding of the Nile.
 NEW LANDMARKS IN
ARCHITECTURE AND CITY
PLANNING
Social
structure
Influenced the city
planning
EGYPTIAN TOWN PLANNING
The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-
isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the
development of one of the world's great civilizations.
•SECURITY
•ECONOMICS
•ELEVATIONS, KEPT ABOVE THE SLOWLY RISING PLAINS.

• WHEN OLD HOUSES CRUMBLED, NEW ONES WERE BUILT ON TOP OF THE DEBRIS.

•THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON UNTIL RECENT TIMES, WHEN THE YEARLY
INUNDATIONS WERE STOPPED BY THE ASWAN DAM.

•Didn’t continue to occupy the same site -> paucity of urban remains
•No economic necessity, to take advantage of the enormous economic capital
investment of walls
•Each successive Pharaoh had the freedom to spend his reigning life
on earth preparing his tomb for after-life.
•Less time to settle down in each place
•Most permanent building materials were used in temple or tomb construction
PLANNED CITY :- AKHETATEN
(Modern name: AMARNA)
Akhenaten chose a magnificent site for his new residence city and religious
centre in middle Egypt at Akhetaten, 'the Horizon of the Aten' (modern Amarna),
Here was unlimited building space on a wide crescent-shaped plain running 6
miles or so (10 km) north to south by up to 3lf2 miles (5 km) east to west. Only a
narrow strip of cultivation existed by the river, but on the
opposite bank lay a great fertile plain 12 miles (20 km) across before the desert
on the west side was reached.

This could form the farmland for the city, a royal garden estate, and was included in
the geometrically precise tract of land delineated by the fourteen great rock-cut
boundary markers.

The urban area proper was a ribbon development along the east
bank of the Nile.
 PLANNED CITY :- AKHETATEN
(Modern name: AMARNA)
•Public open spaces had trees

• Inhabitants often had their own private

garden plots.

•Boundaries had empty space.

•Was abandoned after government

edifices had been erected.

• These formed the town centre

•The residential areas were north-east and

south-west of them.
•Workmen had to live in crowded flats of
60 m², or 100 m²
THE BEGINNINGS Amarna is the modern name
for the city built by
Akhenaten, a Pharaoh of the
18th dynasty of ancient Egypt.

reign around 1350 BCE (1353

to 1336 BCE, Freed 1999:13).
Amarna is located as seen on the map above--
on the Eastern side of the Nile
Akhetaten was hastily
constructed and covered an
area of approximately 8
miles (13 km) of territory
on the east bank of the
Nile River; on the west
bank, land was set aside to
provide crops for the city's
population. The entire city
was encircled with a total
of 14
boundary stelae detailing
Akhenaten's conditions for
the establishment of this
new capital city of Egypt.
NORTH CITY
Royal Residences
The Extents of Amarna

CENTRAL CITY
Administration
and religious
area

MAIN CITY

SOUTH SUBURB
Residential
Suburbs
• Linear development along
east bank of Nile
• 3 main routes parallel to
river, connecting various
parts
• 7km long, 0.8-1.5 km wide
overall
• Unfortified city, just
symbolic walls enclosing
the central temple and
palace
• Since buildings were largely
rectangular, there was
regularity in overall layout
without planning
• Palaces and temples built
to a common frontage
• Residences of all types
found in one quarter:
Wealthiest people selected
own house sites along
main streets, less wealthier
ones took plots behind these,
poor ones squeezed in.
PLANNED CITY :- AKHETATEN
•Whole space inside the walls was occupied by
houses.

•The parallel streets were about two metres wide

•Whole space inside the walls was occupied by

houses.

• Workers' settlement was walled in.

•The temples, the palace and the royal residences,

the barracks, the offices of the administration, etc
were not surrounded by any wall
North City
Located within the North City area is the Northern
Palace, the main residence of the Royal Family.
Northern Suburb was initially a prosperous area
with large houses, but the house size decreased and
became poorer the further from the road they
were.
Central City
Most of the important ceremonial and
administrative buildings were located in the central
city. Here the Great Temple of the Aten and
the Small Aten Temple were used for religious
functions and between these the Great Royal
Palace and Royal Residence were the ceremonial
residence of the King and Royal Family, and were
linked by a bridge or ramp.
Located behind the Royal Residence was the Bureau
of Correspondence of Pharaoh, where the Amarna
Letters were found.
This area was probably the first area to be
completed, and had at least two phases of
construction.
Southern suburbs
the Southern Suburbs contained the estates of many of SOUTH SUBURB
the city's powerful nobles, This area also held the studio Residential Suburbs
of the sculptor Thutmose, where the famous bust of
Nefertiti was found in 1912.
Further to the south of the city was Kom el-Nana, an
enclosure, usually referred to as a sun-shade, and was
probably built as a sun-temple.,and then the Maru-Aten,
which was palace or sun-temple originally thought to
have been constructed for Akhenaten's queen Kiya.
City outskirts
Surrounding the city and marking its extent,
the Boundary Stelae (each a rectangle of carved rock
on the cliffs on both sides of the Nile) describing the
founding of the city are a primary source of information
about it.
Away from the city Akhenaten's Royal necropolis was
started in a narrow valley to the east of the city, hidden
in the cliffs. Only one tomb was completed, and was
used by an unnamed Royal Wife, and Akhenaten's tomb
was hastily used to hold him and likely Meketaten, his
second daughter.
In the cliffs to the north and south of the Royal Wadi, the
nobles of the city constructed their Tombs.
PLANNED CITY :- AKHETATEN
•The Egyptians rarely planned
few spaces free for the important roads of access,

•Setting temple districts apart and erecting an

adobe wall around it all.

•Akhetaten were at times a jumble of houses,

• plot owners were not free to do as they liked.

•They had to take into account their neighbours' rights

and wishes

•Use of grid-iron only for a small and relatively

insignificant part of the city - example of political
expediency
•The implementation of any town plan implies political
control to ensure that the inhabitants conform to its
requirements
•Akhenaten could impose a plan on the
workmen, but not on his wealthy powerful
relatives and officials
CITY QUARTERS

Egyptian city dwellers had little choice about adding further storeys.

Land suitable for building

•Had to be above the floodlevel of the nile

•Reasonably close to the river

•Many egyptians were forced to live in these crowded conditions.

•At akhetaten where there was no lack of suitable land, some private homes were still built
in the same warren-like fashion.
PLANNED CITY :- HOTEPSENUSRET
•Founded by senusret ii in the fayum

•Inhabited for about a century. The outlay of the city

was rectangular

• Area 350 x 400 sq m.

.
•Surrounded by brick wall

•Divided into two parts by another wall.

•Different social classes did not live in separate city

quarters.

•Rich residential area, where palatial 60 room

residences were fifty times as big as the dwellings in the
poorer half of the city.
PLANNED CITY :- HOTEPSENUSRET (Kahun)
 PLANNED CITY :- HOTEPSENUSRET

•THIS PART HAD ALSO A WIDE

STREET LEADING TO THE
PALACE.

•THE STREETS ALL OVER THE

CITY WERE STRAIGHT LINES.

•THE MAIN STREET WAS NINE

METRES .

•STREETS IN RESIDENTIAL
DISTRICTS AS NARROW AS 1½
METRES.

•STREETS HAD SHALLOW STONE

CHANNELS RUNNING DOWN
THE MIDDLE FOR DRAINAGE .
 •Uniform type of houses with no gardens
PLANNED CITY :- HOTEPSENUSRET
•Each house has its own open court
•House of ordinary workman = At
least 3 rooms + courtyard
• depending on status, number of rooms
increased, some even 2 floors

•The whole area was covered with streets and

one-storeyed mud-brick buildings.

• HOTEPSENUSRET WAS VERY DIFFERENT

FROM AKHENATEN'S
• 2 situations whereby an ancient Egyptian
temple was either:
• New foundation on a hitherto non-
urban site and where it was to
remain the principal or even sole
reason for a settlement’s existence
• Eg. Kahun
• Part of community which had other
independent bases for its economic
life
• Eg. Akhenaten
Temple districts

•Temple districts were better planned.

• The outlay of individual temples was basically

symmetrical.

•Walls surrounded them.

•At hotep-senusret :-
a) the brick wall was on three sides of the
temple
Was 12 metres thick and lined with limestone.
Avenues leading through the city to the temple
district were wide, suitable for processions.
Temple districts
• The temple complexes had extensive storage space

• The thickness of the brick wall lined with limestone hotep

senusret (kahun) was about 12 metres .

• Its height must have been correspondingly great.

• When walls were built completely of stone, their thickness

could be reduced, but they were still quite massive.

• Paved street five metres wide was discovered.

• Pavement of streets was restricted to the temple complexes

• Temples were surrounded by an empty space

• Over time houses were built right up to the outer temple walls.
• Houses decayed and were rebuilt many times , result that the ground level of the
residential area rose

• The temples which, being built of stone, were not periodically rebuilt, seemingly sank into the
ground.
Palaces
The whole compound was enclosed and separate from the rest of the capital,
Albeit close to suppliers of services, temples and the seat of the administration
 Workers' dwellings
The houses of the workmen had two to four
rooms on the ground floor (44 and 60 m²)

• access to the flat roof, which was used as

living and storing space.
• The houses abutting the inner wall on the
eastern side were bigger, having up to seven
rooms.

•Some of the dwellings had conical granaries on

the ground floor. The doorways were arched

•Traces of brick barrel-vaulting have been

found on supporting walls.

•Roofs were made of wooden planks supported

by beams and plastered over with mud.
Deir-el-medina: Worker’s villages
 The Great Houses
The Great Houses covered about
2700 m² each and served as offices
and living quarters for the high
officials in charge of the construction
work and their families. There were
four almost identical houses and one
differently built one north of the street
and another three with a completely
different ground plan south of it.

After the pyramid had been built and

the officials had left, people began to
take over their houses, adapting them to
their own needs by walling up entrances
and creating new walls and passages.
 The Great Houses
The layout of one of the northern Great Houses
1 Main entrance
2 Doorkeeper's lodge
3 Offices, guest rooms
4 Pillared hall
5 Private quarters
6 The mandara, i.e. reception room for strangers
7 Open courtyard
8 Best hall, with columns and tank
9 Private rooms
10 Visitors' passage to the mandara
11 Women's hall
12 Women's quarters
13 Store rooms
 National capitals – Memphis and Thebes
• National capital / administrative centres
– most important towns
• Memphis – Capital of Northern Egypt
• Thebes – Capital of Southern Egypt

On east bank of Nile, houses

On the fertile west bank of Nile
Numerous temples and palaces, and
pyramid complex of Sakkara (step –
pyramid os Djoser)
Temple of Luxor, Temple complex at
Karnak with the great temple of
Amun (c.1991-785 BC)
Right across on west bank, was the
Necropolis of Thebes – Tomb of
Tutankhamun
Memphis
A B
C D E

F G H

I
J
K
L N
O Q
M P
Y
R T U X
S W
V
Thebes

Thebes. General plan showing principal

urban areas.
What was meant to be the Home
for the Pharaoh after his death is
One of the major tourist
attractions today….
Thank you
A b h i s h e k K . V.