Pangasinan State University

Urdaneta City Campus

Department of Architecture

History of Architecture
Quiz 1

1. Describe the Architectural character of Ancient Egypt, (25 points)

2. Enumerate 5 Egyptian Architecture examples. (25points)
3. Describe the Architectural character of Near East or the West Asiatic, (25 points)
4. Enumerate 5 Near East or West Asiatic Architecture examples. (25 points)

1.) ANCIENT EGYPT

- Egyptian Architecture

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE

• Afterlife - life and house on earth is temporary, the tombis permanent
• For sustenance and eternal enjoyment of the deceased
• Religion is the dominant element in Egyptian architecture

MATERIALS
• Stone was abundant in variety and quantity
• Used for monuments and religious buildings
• Durability of stone is why monuments still exist to this day
• Other materials, metals and timber were imported
• Mud bricks: for houses, palaces (reeds, papyrus, palmbranch ribs, plastered over with clay)

ROOF & OPENINGS

• Roof was not an important consideration
• Flat roofs sufficed to cover and exclude heat
• No windows
• Spaces were lit by skylights, roof slits, clerestories

WALL
• Batter wall - diminishing in width towards the top forstability
• Thickness: 9 to 24m at temples
• Unbroken massive walls, uninterrupted space forhieroglyphics

DECORATIONS
• Mouldings such as "gorge" or "hollow and roll" wasinspired by reeds
• Torus moulding
• Hieroglyphics were pictorial representations of religion,history and daily life
• Derived from the practice of scratching pictures on mud-plaster walls
• Common capitals used were the lotus, papyrus, palmwhich echoed indigenous Egyptian plants, and weresymbols
of fertility as well
• The shaft represented bundle of stems
EXAMPLES OF EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE

1. Step Pyramid of Zoser, Saqqara

2. Pyramids at Gizeh
3. Great Temple of Abu-Simbel
4. Great Temple of Ammon, Karnak, Thebes
5. Temple of Khons

2.) NEAR EAST OR THE WEST ASIATIC

- NEAT EAST ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NEAR EAST OR WEST ASIATIC

MATERIALS
• Only materials readily available was clay, soil, reeds,rushes
• Bricks made of mud and chopped straw, sun-dried orkiln-fired
• Timber, copper, tin, lead gold, silver imported

DECORATION
• Colossal winged-bulls guarding chief portals
• Polychrome glazed bricks in blue, white, yellow, green
• Murals of decorative continuous stone

EXAMPLES OF NEAR EAST ARCHITECTURE

1. Great Ziggurat at Ur
2. Apadana Palace
3. Palace of Sargon, Khorbad
4. City Of Babylon
5. White Temple Uruk