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Egyptian architecture
Egyptian architecture featured massive stone structures for temples and tombs, while domestic buildings used mud brick. Pyramids evolved from mastabas and step pyramids as ways to provide passage to the afterlife. The Great Pyramids of Giza, among the largest constructions ever built, housed tombs for pharaohs. Later pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings, with hidden entrances and richly decorated tombs. Temples followed a structured layout and used light and shadow symbolically through clerestory windows and column placement.
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Egyptian architecture
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- 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE Massivestructures came to be favoured from the Old Kingdom on. Mud brick was the principal building material for domestic building. Stone was favoured for temples and tombs.
- 3. Features of mud constructionwere often echoed in stone. For example, columns were built to resemble plants or bunches of plants.
- 4. Features of mud constructionwere often echoed in stone. Corner detailing often resembled bunches of reeds used as a binding material in mud construction.
- 5. FUNERARY STRUCTURES Egyptian aristocraticculture focussed on preparation for life after death. Preservation of bodies through mummification and providing goods for the afterlife were considered essential.
- 6. MASTABAS Early Old Kingdomaristocratic and royal burials were in mastabas - square or rectangular buildings connected by shafts to tomb chambers deep beneath the earth. The mastaba also housed a chapel and a statue of the dead.
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- 8. ZOSER’S STEP PYRAMID Builtduring the 3rd dynasty, Zoser’s architect, Imhotep, added steps above Zoser’s mastaba to create a step pyramid -- a stairway to the heavens.
- 9. THE GREAT PYRAMIDSOF GIZEH These were built during the 4th dynasty. What remains is but a fraction of the great funerary districts of each of thae pyramids. Construction was hugely labour intensive -- but this was paid labour during slow agricultural seasons, not slave labour as is commonly supposed.
- 10. The Great Pyramidsat Gizeh
- 11. Section of Pyramidof Khufu Relieving Blocks Grand Gallery King’s Chamber Queen’s Chamber False Tomb Chamber Thieves Tunnel Entrance
- 12. The Great Pyramidsof Gizeh These were buildings that housed chambers and passages, including small air shafts that may have been used for ventilation -- or were, perhaps, passages for the spirit of the pharaohs to pass through. Pyramid building was abandoned during the Old Kingdom. They provided tomb robbers with easily identifiable targets.
- 13. The Theban Necropolis Pyramidalstructures were abandoned in the Old Kingdom. Later Pharaohs were buried in Upper Egypt across the Nile from Karnak. Large concentrations of tombs were cut into cliffsides at what are now known as the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens.
- 14. Theban Necropolis. Interiors wererichly decorated with paintings and low-relief carvings.
- 15. The Valley ofthe Kings Entrances were hidden to protect tomb treasures from grave-robbers. Over the millennia this has proven largely unsuccessful. Only Tutenkhamen’s tomb eluded them.
- 16. Mortuary Temples Though mummiesand treasures might be concealed, more conspicuous temple structures were still required -- like Hatshepsut’s temple near the Theban Necropolis.
- 17. Temples These were builtin the same forms as palaces, with three increasingly restricted areas. First Pylon Second Pylon Hypostile Hall Sacred Area including Chapels Entrance
- 18. Temples The entire templewas surrounded by a windowless wall. Within the temple, light and shadow were important features. Walls might be blank or incised with low relief carvings.
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- 20. Temples Lighting through wallopenings, columns, and clerestory windows in the colonnade, were intended to feature particular locations. In the case of Abu Simbel, the statures on the wall deepest in the temple, emerged from shadow on two days during the year.
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- 22. Temple at Karnak GreatPylons marked entrances.
- 23. LUXOR TEMPLE THE MOSTPUBLIC AREA WAS A LARGE COURTYARD, SURROUNDED BY A POST AND LINTEL COLONNADE.
- 24. TEMPLE AT KARNAK THESECOND AREA WAS THE GREAT HYPOSTYLE HALL, WITH ITS DENSE FOREST OF COLUMNS.
- 25. TEMPLE OF KARNAK COLUMNS& CAPITALS IN HYPOSTYLE HALL
- 26. TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE LIGHT &SHADOW WERE IMPORTANT FEATURES. LIGHT CAME THROUGH: WALL OPENINGS GAPS BETWEEN COLUMNS CLERESTORY WINDOWS
- 27. IN CLOSING EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURESHOWED BOTH VARIETY AND CONTINUITY OVER CA. 3,000 YEARS. WHILE DOMESTIC STRUCTURES OF MUD BRICK HAVE BEEN OBLITERATED BY TIME, MONUMENTAL STRUCTURES IN STONE STILL ASTOUND VISITORS TO EGYPT TODAY.