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Geographical
Egyptian
Architecture
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Geological
 North – limestone
 Central region – sandstone
 South – granite
 Quarrying, transporting and raising
enormous blocks of stone to position
– made possible the monumental
scale of Egyptian structures
 Sun-dried and kiln-burnt bricks –
made from Nile
 Mud, clay and reed – used for
palaces and houses
Climatic
 Stone – used for pyramids and
temples.
3 4
Religion
 The Egyptians attained a very high
degree of learning in astronomy,
mathematics, and philosophy.
 Polytheistic - a multiplicity of gods
was created by personifying natural
phenomena, such as the sun, moon,
and stars.
 The Egyptians were strong believers
in a future state; hence their care in
the preservation of their dead, and
the erection of everlasting
monuments such as the pyramids.
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 Nile River – life blood of Egypt
• Acted as a trade route, means of
communication, and fertilizing
agents that made desert sands into
productive fields.
• Made agriculture possible that
resulted in the development of
towns and settlements on the
eastern bank of the river.
• Valley of the Dead – western bank
where Egyptians built their pyramids
and tomb structures.
• Egypt consists of a sandy desert
with a strip of fertile alluvial land on
the banks of the Nile.
Climate
 Egypt has a warm, sunny climate
 Storm and rain are rare
• Flat roof with thick stone slabs
• Accounts for the good
preservation of the structures.
 Absence of windows – since sufficient
light reached the interiors through
doors & roof slits.
 Massive walls, without openings –
protected the interior from the fierce
desert sun.
 Protection against heat but no
necessity to provide against inclement
weather – simplicity in construction
Social
 Pharaoh – considered to be the
descendent of the sun god
 During annual floods, agriculture is
impossible
• Enabled the employment for building
important state structures.
• Transport of stone required for these
great buildings was more effective by
means of rafts.
 Slave labor – graphically depicted in the
wall sculptures of monuments.
• Workmen receive no other pay than
their food.
• Thus a state of cheap labor existed -
favorable to the execution of
monumental structures.
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1. The Ancient Empire (Dynasties I -X) – 4777-2821 BC

2. The Middle Empire (Dynasties XI-XVI) – 2821-1738 BC

Historical 3. The New Empire (Dynasties XVII-XX) – 1738-950 BC

 Thebes – capital
 Egyptian civilization – the most ancient
 Many imposing buildings were erected at Karnac, Luxor, and elsewhere.
 Pyramids – 4,500 years ago

19th dynasty – founded by Rameses I (1400-1366 BC)

 The most brilliant epoch of Egyptian architecture.
 This evidence of his greatness, and that of his grandson, Rameses II (1333-1300 BC),
as builders, is to be seen in the Temples of Thebes and elsewhere.

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Character
 Simplicity
 Monumentality
 Solidity or massiveness

Architectural
Systems of Construction
Character  Post and Lintel (Columnar/ Trabeated)

 Batter wall
• Diminishing in width towards the top for
stability
• Maintaining vertical walls inside
• Provided the surface for hieroglyphics

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Roofs Ornaments
 Flat roofs, suited to the lack of  Egyptians were masters in the use of
rain colors

 Huge stone blocks supported by  Hieroglyphics – sacred writings

the external walls and closely-
spaced columns  Religious symbols
• Ankh - eternal life, immortality
• The Eye of Horus - healing,
protection, good health, and
Mouldings royal power
• Vulture with solar disc - protection
“Gorge and Hollow Moulding”
• The torus mould in Egyptian
temples used to cover the
angles.

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Ornaments False Doors

 Lotus, Papyrus and Palm – fertility  Niches for offerings found in tombs
and temples for the dead
 Solar Discs and Vultures – protection
 Given the form of doors.
 Spiral and feather ornament – eternity
 Offering could be real food placed on
 Scarab or sacred beetle - resurrection an offering slab or symbolic food
carved into a stela.

 Often highly decorated and marked

with the names and titles of the
grave's owner.

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Fluted Columns
Columns and Capitals
 Resembled bundled reeds or plants stems but
Plant Style during later periods, it sometimes took the form
of a polygonal shaft.
 The stone shafts were carved in a way that
they resembled bundled reeds, tree trunks or  Early form of column but mostly died out by the
plants’ stem New Kingdom.

 The capital was bud-shaped or bell-shaped

 Motifs on the capitals were lily, palm, lotus or

papyrus plant

 Decorations usually were bright painted carved Palmiform Columns

relief decorations
 The columns depicted a palm tree
motif.

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Lotiform Columns
Papyriform Columns
 Used in non-secular buildings, but rarely in
religious structures  Resembled a papyrus plant

 Resembles a simple lotus bud form and
finds ample use in old and middle kingdom
temples. In the new kingdom, their use
declined.
 The ribbed shafts represent lotus stems and
capitals are in the form of a closed bud or
open lotus flower.
 There are several variations of this type of
column.
• Some have circular shafts representing
a single plant
• Others have ribbed shafts that represent
plants with multiple stems.
 The capitals could be closed (buds) or
open in a wide, bell-shaped form.

 During the New Kingdom, the shafts of most

papyriform columns taper upwards from
bases decorated with triangular patterns
representing stylized stem sheaths.

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Tent Pole Columns

 A representation in stone of the wooden

Coniform Columns
poles used to support light structures
such as tents, shrines or ship cabins.
 This column style apparently quickly died
out after their use in Djoser's Step Pyramid
 Why this tent pole design was used is
enclosure wall. It has not been found in later
somewhat a mystery, though they
temples.
certainly reflect back on earliest
Egyptian structures and their wood
 The style is characterized by a fluted shaft
counterparts.
surmounted by a capital representing the
branches of a conifer tree.
 The only surviving known examples are
found in the Festival Temple of Tuthmosis
III at Karnak.

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Campaniform Columns

 Sometimes took the shape of a floral

column or pillar.
Composite Columns
 Some had circular, ribbed or square
 Common during the Graeco-Roman Period.
shafts.
 Probably an evolutionary extension of the
 All had some form of flower shaped
campaniform columns with capital decorations
capital.
including floral designs of any number of real or
even imagined plants.
 Included two styles of column:
• One representing the heraldic
 Continued to evolve in Greece and Rome,
plant of Lower (northern) Egypt,
became very different from the Egyptian variety.
the Papyrus
• Other type representing the
symbolic plant of Upper
(southern) Egypt, the Lotus.

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Non-Plant Styles

Osiris Pillars
Hathor Columns
 All examples of this type of pillar are
engaged, meaning they are part of
 Usually instantly recognizable by their
another architectural element.
capital in the shape of the cow-
headed goddess, Hathor.
 They appear to also have originated
in the Middle Kingdom, and take the
 Often had a simple, round shaft.
form of a statue of the god Osiris on
the pillar's front surface.

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Plans

 Buildings are planned along a  Pylon – massive; ornamented with

central axis. incised decorations formed the chief
façade
 Courts and halls were designed to
produce an impressive internal  Obelisk – slender; standing in front of
effect. pylons

 Hypostyle hall – the grandest  Sphinx - the approach to the pylons;

achievement of Egyptian axial usually an avenue.
planning.

• Crowded with pillars

• Illuminated from above

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 Building Types:
• Tombs:
o Mastabas

Architectural o Pyramids
o Rock-hewn Tombs
• Temples

Examples  When they died, they were buried

at the Necropolis

 Tombs were the most outstanding

architectural structure

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Tombs Tombs
Mastabas
Mastabas
Mastabas  Mastaba comes from an Arabic
word for "bench" and translated to
"eternal house" in ancient Egyptian.

 Often about four times as long as

Rock-hewn they were wide, and many rose to at

Tombs Temples least 9 meters in height.

 Origin of the pyramids

 This was the first tomb structure built

by the Egyptians.

 An ancient Egyptian tomb made of

Pyramids mud brick, rectangular in plan with
flat roof and sloping sides.

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Tombs Tombs
Important Parts of a Mastaba:
Mastabas Mastabas
1. Outer Chamber/ Chapel
 Where offerings to the “Ka”
or “double,” having its walls
decorated with
 The very first method used by the representations of feast and
ancient Egyptians was a simple pit dug other scenes.
into the sand. Due to contact with the
dry desert, the body was naturally 2. Inner Secret Chambers/ Serdab
preserved with mummification,  Contains statues of the
however, it was not as protected. deceased, and members of
his family.
 The Egyptians believed that the soul
could not live on in the afterlife if its 3. Burial chamber
body was not preserved.  30 feet below ground,
leading to the chamber
containing the sarcophagus
with its mummy.

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Tombs
Mastabas

 Up until sometime in the Old

Kingdom, only royalty and high-
ranking officials would be buried in
 Hundreds (150) of the bench-like the mastaba.
tombs can be found on the Giza
Plateau, not far from the pyramids.  As the Old Kingdom (3rd Dynasty)
commenced, the pharaohs started
to be buried in pyramids instead of
mastabas, while commoners
continued using the mastaba as a
burial house.

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Tombs Tombs
Mastabas Rock-hewn Tombs
The Tombs at Beni Hasan

 The Tombs at Beni-Hasan, in Upper

 By the Fourth Dynasty, tombs cut into rock Egypt, form a remarkable group of
cliffs started to appear. These were largely built in 39 rock-hewn or rock-cut tombs.
Upper Egypt, which was to the south where more
rocky geography existed. The reason for these  Carved into some limestone hills on
tombs was due to grave robbers. the East Bank of the Nile.

 The New Kingdom largely saw the end of the  The entrance to the Tomb of
mastaba, completely overtaken by the pyramid Khnemhotep, has two sixteen-sided
built over a burial chamber. columns, sometimes considered to
be a prototype of the Greek Doric
order. These are slightly fluted and
have an entasis.

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Tombs
Pyramids
The Step Pyramid of Djoser, Saqqara
 Egypt’s first pyramid
 62 meters high
 Djoser's vizier, Imhotep (c. 2667 BC),
conceived building a more
impressive tomb for his king by
stacking mastabas on top of one
another, progressively making them
smaller, to form the shape now
known as the Step Pyramid.
 Djoser (c. 2670 BC) was the first king
of the Third Dynasty of Egypt and the
first to build in stone.
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Tombs
Pyramids
 The surrounding complex included a
temple, courtyards, shrines, and
living quarters for the priests
covering an area of 16 hectares
and surrounded by a wall 10.5
meters high.
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Tombs
Pyramids
The Red Pyramid
 The largest of the three major
pyramids located at the Dahshur
necropolis in Cairo, Egypt.
 Named for the rusty reddish hue of
its red limestone stones.
 It is also the third largest Egyptian
pyramid, after those
of Khufu and Khafra at Giza.
 It is also believed to be Egypt's first
successful attempt at constructing a
"true" smooth-sided pyramid.
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Tombs
Pyramids
 The pyramid began as a square
mastaba, instead of the usual
rectangular shape, and then was
changed to rectangular.
 Because of the weight being a
challenge to the builders, the
masonry was laid not vertically but
in courses inclined toward the
middle of the pyramid in order to
prevent the monument from
breaking up, thus significantly
increasing its structural stability. The
basic material used was limestone
blocks, whose form resembled that
of large bricks of clay.
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 According to Sneferu (father of Khufu),
Tombs
the Step Pyramid was not a "true
Pyramids
pyramid" and, in the period of the Old
Kingdom he sought to improve on
Imhotep's plans and create an even
more impressive monument:
• Collapsed Pyramid at Meidum
o First attempt
o Failed because of modifications
from Imhotep's design.
• Bent Pyramid
o Failed because of miscalculations
made on the structural weight
that was being placed on the
soft ground.
• Red Pyramid
o The first true pyramid constructed
in Egypt.
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Tombs
Pyramids
The Great Pyramid of Giza
 All erected during the 4th dynasty
(3998-3721 BC). The kings of the 4th
dynasty were often referred to as
"the pyramid builders."
 It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World, and the only
one to remain largely intact.
 It is located on the Giza plateau
near the modern city of Cairo and
was built over a twenty-year period
during the reign of the king Khufu
(2589-2566 BC, also known as
Cheops) of the 4th dynasty.
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 The offering chapel abutted
the center of the pyramid’s
east face, and the mortuary
temple stood axially in front of
it, joined by a causeway which
led eastward.
 Flanking the temple on east
and west are two boat-shaped
pits cut in the rock, and there is
a third alongside the north of
the causeway.
 At a little distance southeast of
the east face of the pyramid
are three subsidiary pyramids,
tombs of Khufu’s queens, with
chapels on their own east
sides.
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 The entrance, which is on the northern side, is
14 meters above the base.
 The passage to which it gives access first
slopes downwards, and afterwards re-
ascends towards the heart of the pyramid,
where the King's Chamber is situated.
 There were two other chambers: one known
as the Queen's Chamber, connected with a
passage leading off that to the King's
Chamber, and the other, a subterranean
chamber.
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The Great Sphinx
 A limestone statue of a single rock of limestone.
reclining sphinx, a mythical
creature with the body of a lion and
the head of a human.
 Located a little to the northwest of
the Valley Building of the pyramid of
Khafre.
 The sculpture is 73 meters long and
20 meters high, the face being 4
meters across.
 When and how it was built, is still
being debated. Also there is still no
confirmation on whose face the
statue carries.
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Tombs
Pyramids
 The pyramid rises to a height of 146 meters with a
base of 230 meters, with an area of 125,000 square
meters, twice the extent of St. Peter’s Basilica in
Vatican.
 The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made
structure in the world for more than 3,800 years.
 It is comprised of over two million blocks of stone.
The average weight of each block is 2,500 kg.
 The sides directly face the cardinal points, as in all
the pyramids, and they make an angle with the
ground of 51 degrees 50 minutes.
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Tombs
Pyramids
 Khufu's vizier was Hemiunu, his nephew. He was
believed to be in charge of the design and
building of the Great Pyramid.
 The exterior of the pyramid was originally cased
with a sloping face of Tura limestone, which has
now disappeared, showing the original stepped
surface on which the casing was placed.
 At 216 meters wide and 143 meters high, Khafre’s
pyramid was a little less large than that of his
father, Khufu. Its distinctive cap is formed by the
white limestone casing.
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 The whole statue was made from a
 The positioning of the Great Sphinx is
in such a way that it faces east
where the sun rises.
 It bears the head of a man, wearing
the royal head-dress, cobra brow
ornament, and has the body of a
recumbent lion.
 Between the forepaws is a large,
inscribed granite stele, recording a
restoration made by Thutmose IV
(1425 BC), of the 18th dynasty.
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 The Sphinx had a beard that was also

made of limestone. The beard fell off
due to erosion, and the way it broke
off from the statute states that it was
 It is believed that the body and face of the Sphinx
not a part of the original structure.
were painted red. The headdress had a yellow
sheen and beard had a blue coat on it.
 Archeologists believe that the beard
was added later in the rule of
Thutmose IV.

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 It was believed that the Sphinx lost its

 It was believed that the nose was nose when a cannonball fired by
actually destroyed by a Sufi Muslim Napoleon’s soldiers hit the nose and
named Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr. caused it to break off.
In 1378 BC, Egyptian peasants made
offerings to the Great Sphinx in the  However, the “Sketches of the Sphinx”
hope of controlling the flood cycle. by the Dane Frederic Louis Norden,
Outraged by the idolatry, Sa'im al- created in 1737, show the sphinx
Dahr destroyed the nose and was already missing its nose. This was way
later executed for vandalism. before the era of Napoleon.

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Temples Temples
The Temple of Khons, Karnak

Main categories:
 A cult temple.
1. Mortuary temples – place of
 Parts:
worship of a deceased pharaoh
• Entrance pylons
and the depository of food and
o Fronted by obelisks
objects offered to the dead
o Approached through an
monarch.
avenue of sphinxes
• Hypostyle Hall (also called
2. Cult temples – popular worship of
pronaos)
the ancient and mysterious gods.
• Sanctuary
• Various Chapels

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Temples Temples

 Open court – open to the sky in the

The Great Temple of Amun, Karnak
center, also called "hypaethral"
(from two Greek words, meaning
"under the air ").

 Hypostyle hall – in which light was  The grandest of all Egyptian

admitted by means of a clerestory temples.
above, formed by the increased
height of the columns on the central  The complex remains one of the
aisle. largest religious complexes in the
world.
 The temple was protected by a
great wall of the same height as the  Extending over an area of 366
halls themselves, and like them, the meters by 110 meters.
wall decreased in height towards
the sanctuary end.

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Temples  It has ten pairs of pylons added in Temples

successive generations.

 The Hypostyle hall measures 5,000

square meters, making it the largest
room of any religious structure in the
world and covers about the same
 The temple had two axes: area as Notre Dame, Paris.

• North/south  The walls of the hall, the column

o Continued towards the shafts, and the architraves are
temple of Luxor and was covered with inscriptions and
connected by an avenue colored decorations depicting
of ram-headed sphinxes. stories and deities.

• East/west  These ancient carvings influenced

Christian churches to employ
colored mosaics and frescos,
stained glass windows and mural
statues.

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Temples

 The tallest obelisk in Egypt stood at Karnak and

was dedicated by the female pharaoh
Hatshepsut who ruled Egypt during the New
Kingdom. It was made out of one piece of red
granite.

 Another unusual feature was the Festival

Temple of Thutmose III, which had columns that
represented tent poles.

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Temples
The two primary cults temples
on the east bank are known
The Temple at Luxor, Thebes
as the Karnak and Luxor.

 Built by the New Kingdom pharaohs:

• Amenhotep III (1390–1352 BC)
• Tutankhamen (1336-1327 BC)
• Horemheb (1323-1295 BC)
• Rameses II (1279–1213 BC)

 The Luxor Temple is constructed of

sandstone blocks from Nubia, in
southwest Egypt.

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Temples Temples
The Temple at Luxor, Thebes
Pylon of Rameses II

Its main function was during the annual Opet  The pylon measures 24 meters high
celebrations, when the statues of Amun, Mut and 65 meters wide, carved in
and Khonsu (Theban Triad) were brought sunken relief depicting Rameses II at
from Karnak, along the Avenue of Sphinxes, the battle of Kadesh.
and reunited here during the inundation.
 Six colossal statues of Ramesses
II, two of them seated, flanked the
entrance, though today only the
two seated ones have survived.

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Temples Temples
The Temple at Luxor
Obelisks

Two red granite obelisks originally stood in front of the first

pylon at the rear of the forecourt, but only one, more than
25 meters high, now remains. The other was removed
to Paris where it now stands in the center of the Place de la
Concorde (Cleopatra’s Needles).

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Temples
The Temple at Luxor
Sphinxes
An avenue of human-headed sphinxes
(around 1,350) of over 3 kilometers
connects the temples of Karnak and Luxor.
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Temples
The Great Temple of Abu Simbel
 The Great Temple of Abu Simbel was
built by Rameses II (1333-1300 BC)
and was entirely excavated out of
solid rock.
 Its imposing façade is 36 meters
wide and over 30 meters high,
having four rock-cut seated colossal
statues of Rameses II, each over 20
meters in height.
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Temples
Hypostyle Hall
 Sometimes also called a pronaos, is
18 meters long and 17 meters wide
and is supported by eight huge
Osiris pillars depicting the deified
Rameses II.
 The colossal statues along the left-
hand wall bear the white crown
of Upper Egypt, while those on the
right side are wearing the double
crown of Upper and Lower
Egypt (pschent).
 The bas-reliefs on the walls of the
pronaos depict battle scenes in the
military campaigns that Rameses II
waged.
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Temples
The Twin Temples of Abu Simbel
Great Temple Small Temple
Rameses II Queen Nefertari
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Temples
 The Great Temple took about
twenty years to build.
 It was dedicated to the gods Amun,
Ra-Horakhty, and Ptah, as well as to
the deified Rameses II himself.
 Beside the legs of the colossi, there
are other statues no higher than the
knees of the pharaoh. These depict
Nefertari, the queen mother; his first
two sons and his first six daughters.
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Temples
 The temples are aligned with the east so that,
twice a year, on 21 February and 21 October,
the sun shines directly into the sanctuary of
The Great Temple to illuminate the statues of
Amun, Rameses II and Ra-Horakhty. The
dates are thought to correspond to Rameses'
birthday and coronation.
 One distinct feature is that the statue of the
god Ptah, who sits among the others, is
carefully positioned so that it is never
illuminated at any time – as Ptah was
associated with the Egyptian underworld, his
image was kept in perpetual darkness.
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Temples Temples
The Small Temple of Abu Simbel
 Remarkably, this is one of very few
instances in Egyptian architecture
where the statues of the king and his
 Also known as the Temple of Hathor
consort have equal size. Traditionally,
and Nefertari, it stands 100 meters
the statues of the queens stood next
northeast of the great temple at a
to those of the pharaoh, but were
height of 12 meters and 28 meters
never taller than his knees.
long. This temple is also adorned by
colossi across the front facade, three
 The Small Temple is also notable since
on either side of the doorway,
it is the second time in ancient
depicting Rameses II and his queen
Egyptian history that a ruler dedicated
Nefertari (four statues of the king and
a temple to his wife (the first time
two of the queen) at a height of 10
being the Pharaoh Akhenaton, 1353-
meters.
1336 BC, who dedicated a temple to
his queen Nefertiti.

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Hathor
Goddess of motherhood, joy, and love

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Osiris Sarcophagus
god of fertility, alcohol, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation

The word comes from

the Greek words:
sarx - flesh
phagein - to eat,

Hence, sarcophagus means

“flesh-eating.”

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Vizier Amun Mut Khonsu

King of Gods mother goddess god of the moon

The vizier was the highest official

(second most powerful) in
Ancient Egypt to serve the pharaoh
during the Old, Middle, and New
Kingdoms.

The vizier was the final architect of

any building project and had to
delegate responsibility for materials,
transport, labor, payments and any
other aspect of the work.

Imhotep Hemiunu
Step Pyramid of Djoser Great Pyramid of Giza

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Obelisk

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89 90

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King’s Chamber

 In this chamber, which is 10.5 meters by 5

meters and 6 meters high, is where the
sarcophagus of the king containing his
embalmed body is placed.

Robbers’ Tunnel  The covering of the chamber is very

By Caliph al-Ma'mun
elaborate – five tiers of great stone beams –
one above the other, with a void space
between the layers. Above them all is a vault
of pairs of great stones inclined against one
another.

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 Discovered in A sphinx is a creature with the

1954. body of a lion and the head of a
human.
 44 meters long
and 6 meters It is a prominent mythological
wide. figure in Egyptian, Asian, and
Greek mythology.

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