EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE

Geographical Influence:
• Egypt – land of the Pharaohs
• Egypt consists of a narrow strip of fertile, alluvial soil along both banks of the Nile
• Egypt was the only country of the ancient world which, by means of the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea,
commanded outlets and inlets for both western and eastern foreign trade
• The Nile River was the trade route and made the desert sands into fruitful fields because of its overflowing and
fertilizing waters, it can be described as the rich life-blood of Egypt.

Geological Influence:
• Natural products – timber, brick, clay and stone; determined the character of the architecture of Egypt
• Stone is abundant in Egypt, but it is poor in metals apart from copper, tin was imported from the making of
bronze, Iron was of meteoric origin and not mined
• For buildings, the chief kinds of stone used were limestone, sandstone and some alabaster, hard stones used
were granite, quartzite and basalt
• Dolerite (a very tough, greenish stone) was used for dressing hard stones
• Palaces, houses and most buildings other than tombs and temples were constructed of large, sun-dried bricks
• Acacia served for boats and sycamore for mummy cases; indigenous date palm was sometimes used in logs,
for roofing
• Palm leaves, reeds and rushes and similar light materials, used to frame or reinforce mud-brick construction

Climatic Influence:
• Two seasons – spring and summer; rain is rare
• Sufficient light reached the interior of temples through doors and roof slits, there was no real need for windows;
massive walls not only protected the interior from the heat of the sun, but also served as surface for
hieroglyphics or pictorial representations of religious ritual, historic events and daily pursuits
• Rain is rare; therefore, roof drainage was not an important consideration; flat roofs of stone slabs covered the
buildings. Roof slabs also served for religious ceremonies

Religious Influence:
• Religious rites of the Egyptians were traditional and mysterious, and these traits are reproduced in the
architecture of tombs and temples
• Religion was monotheistic in theory but polytheistic in practice (gods representing natural phenomena and
heavenly bodies such as the sun, moon and stars; the also worship animals as personifications of gods)
• OSIRIS – man-god
• The Egyptians realizes the truth “in the midst of life we are in death”, so the wealthy built themselves lordly tomb
houses against the time when they should enter the great land of silence
• Who is Thoth in ancient Egypt?
• People protected themselves against evil by amulets and offerings • Who are AMMON, MUT, KHONS as the
great Theban triad?
• Who are PTAH, SEKHMET, NEFERTEM as the Memphis triad?
• Who are Osiris, Isis, Horus, Hathor, Set and Serapis?
• The outstanding feature of the religion of the Egyptians was their strong belief in the future state, hence the
erection of monuments as pyramids for the preservation of the dead. The dwelling house was regarded as a
temporary lodging, the tomb was the permanent abode
• Egyptians believed in: hope in eternal life, supreme god in the hidden world, omnipotence (having complete or
unlimited power) of kings in the seen world, and the power of priests in touch with both worlds

Social Influence:
• The kings of ancient Egypt are known as Pharaohs; a name given to them by the Hebrews and derived from
the Egyptian Peraa, the “Great House”
• The Pharaohs were divided into thirty dynasties by Manetho, an Egyptian priest who, about 300 BC compiled
a history of Egypt in Greek

Reference: A History of Architecture, A Comparative Method 17 th edition

 Ancient Kingdom
• First and Second Dynasties – art of writing and hieroglyphic system already was being developed; the tombs
of the kings and nobles were of the “mastaba” type and were built of sun-dried bricks just like the houses
• What is the shape and form of a mastaba?
• Third Dynasty – the royal mastaba evolved towards the true pyramid, as is shown in the Step Pyramid of the
Pharaoh Zoser at Sakkara
• Fourth Dynasty – the royal pyramid became fully evolved represented by the famous three pyramids at Gizeh
(Giza)

Middle Kingdom
• Eleventh Dynasty – progressive recovery of political stability and of mastery of the arts
• Under Mentuhetep II the country was unified again; he built an elaborate, terraced mortuary temple at Der el-
Bahari; a small completely solid pyramid raised on a high base, with a rock-cut tomb driven deep into the base
of the sheer cliffs behind
• Amenemhat I of the Twelfth Dynasty – set boundaries to the provinces, carried out irrigation, restored temples
and founded the great temple at Karnak
• Hyksos people introduced the horse and chariot to Egypt

New Empire
• Thothmes I was the first Pharaoh to be buried in the rock-cut ‘corridor’ Tombs of the Kings in the Theban
Mountain
• Amenophis III built the greater part of the temple at Luxor, dignified that at Karnak by pylons and sphinxes
• Rameses I founder of the Nineteenth Dynasty, commenced the great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak
• Rameses II was called by the early Egyptologists ‘the Great’, owing to the remarkable monuments labelled with
his name; he erected many temples such as the Rock Temples at Abu Simbel, the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak
and the Ramesseum at
• Thebes

The Ptolemaic Period

• Alexander the Great as hailed by the priests as the Son of Ammon; he founded Alexandria as the capital and it
became the centre of Greek culture
• After the death of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy ruled. The lower valley of the Nile became prosperous and
powerful kingdom for three centuries
• On the death of Cleopatra, Egypt became a Roman province

Roman Period
• Christianity was declared to be the recognized religion

Later Periods
• Byzantine Period
• When Egypt was ruled by the Eastern Roman emperors from Constantinople (now Istanbul), Christian churches
were erected in the Byzantine style
• When Egypt became under the Arabs, the country fell under the influence of social customs which are bound
up with the
• Muslim religion

Architectural Character

Tomb Architecture
The tombs were of three main types: Mastabas, Royal Pyramids and Rock-hewn tombs
• What is a sarcophagus?
• Research how the mastabas at Giza look like.
• Step Pyramid of Zoser – King Zoser’s architect is Imhotep
• The Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu), The Pyramid of Chephren (Khafra), The Pyramid of Mykerinos
(Menkaura) - - research the height, area in plan and slope

Reference: A History of Architecture, A Comparative Method 17 th edition

 Temples
Temples were of two main classes: mortuary temples and cult temples
Mortuary Temples – for ministrations to deified Pharaohs
Cult Temples – for the popular worship of the ancient and mysterious gods
•
• The Temples of Khons at Karnak (cult temple)
• The Temple of Hatshepsut was built by architect Senmut
• The Great Temple of Ammon, Karnak
• How does a hypostyle hall look like?
• The Great Temple, Abu-Simbel
• Temple of Isis

Obelisks
Obelisks, originating in the sacred symbol of the sun god of Heliopolis, and which usually stood in pairs astride
temple entrances, are huge monoliths, square on plan and tapering to an electrum-capped pyramidion at the summit,
which was the sacred part
• Cleopatra’s Needle
• The Obelisk in the Piazza of S. Giovanni was brought to Rome from the Temple of Ammon at Karnak. It is a
monolith of red granite from Aswan

Dwellings
• Ordinary dwellings were made of crude brick, one or two-storeys high with flat or arched ceilings and a
parapeted (parapet) roof partly occupied by a loggia. Rooms looked towards a north-facing court.

Comparative Analysis

Plans
• Royal pyramids of the Ancient Kingdom stood in a walled enclosure, normally containing a much smaller
pyramid or mastaba at the south end, and an offering chapel and mortuary on the east side. A long, enclosed
causeway connected the mortuary temple with a Valley Building where initial burial rites were conducted
• What is a sphinx? Pylons?
• Temples frequently were rebuilt many times on ancient sites or resulted from a series of additions over many
centuries

Walls
• Temple walls were very thick; of limestone, sandstone, or more rarely of granite
• Mortar was used as a lubricant rather than as an adhesive
• Walls sloped inwards towards the top, giving a massive appearance
• Columns (which are leading external features of Greek architecture, are not often used externally in Egyptian
buildings, which normally have a massive blank wall crowned with the characteristic ‘gorge’ cornice of roll and
hollow moulding
• Simplicity, solidity and grandeur are the chief characteristics of Egyptian Architecture

Openings
• Colonnades and doorways were spanned by massive lintels, not arches
• Windows are seldom found in the outer walls of temples; light was admitted through clear-story screens or over
walls rising half-way up the façade columns. Small slit-openings were also used in walls and roofs to light rooms
and staircases

Roofs
• Temple roofs served for ceremonies and processions and sometimes had pavilions and chapels upon them
• The Egyptians knew of the true arched principle, but did not normally employ it in stone buildings, though they
utilized arches frequently in crude-brick buildings from the Third Dynasty onwards

Reference: A History of Architecture, A Comparative Method 17 th edition

 Columns
• Forms of support were:
1. Square pillar – pillars and columns seldom exceeded six times their own diameter in height and were
elaborated with painting and low-relief carving
2. Polygonal columns
3. The palm type
4. The bud and bell columns
5. Bud columns
6. Foliated capitals
7. Hathor-headed capitals
8. The Osiris pillar

Mouldings
• Mouldings were few and consisted of the torus and roll-moulding for the angles of the buildings, and the hollow,
generally used in conjunction with the roll of the gorge moulding to crown the upper parts of pylons and walls.
This is sometimes either capped or substituted by the cobra or the kheker cresting

Ornament
This important element in the style was often symbolical, including such features as the solar disc and vulture with
outspread wings as a symbol of protection; while diaper patterns, spirals and the feather ornament were used
• Scarab or the sacred beetle is the symbol of resurrection probably because of its habit of allowing the sun to
hatch its eggs in the desert sand
• The Egyptians, master in the use of colour, carried out their schemes of decoration chiefly in blue, red and yellow
• The wall to be decorated was (probably) prepared as follows:
1. The surface was first chiseled smooth and rubbed down
2. The figures or hieroglyphics were then drawn with a red line by an artist and corrected with a black
line by the chief artist
3. The sculptor made his carvings in low relief or incised the outline, slightly rounding the enclosed
form towards its boundaries
4. A thin coat of stucco was then applied to receive the colour, and the painter carried on his work in
the strong hues of the primary colours
• The hieroglyphics were sometimes incised direct on the stone or granite and then coloured – hieroglyphics are
instructive as well as decorative
• The Egyptians conventionalized natural objects – they took the papyrus, lotus and palm as motifs for design –
these were nature symbols of the fertility given to the country by the overflowing Nile, and as such they
continually appear both in construction and ornament

Reference: A History of Architecture, A Comparative Method 17 th edition