Ancient ​Egyptian Architecture   
   
BACKGROUND   
 
   

GEOGRAPHY  RELIGION 
● The Nile River defined the culture 
of Egypt and influence the 
people’s way of living and 
development surrounding it 
● Its fertile deltas yielded crops and 
became home to different animals 
● Flood control was done through   
the construction of dams which  ● People believed in ​immortality​; Egyptians needed to ensure 
led to the growth and sustenance  safety and happiness for their souls after death 
of Egyptian civilization  ● Belief in the ​“ka”​, a person’s “other self”, which upon death 
● It became also a source of mud  of the body can inhabit the corpse and live on 
which were used to create  ● Belief in the ​afterlife​ resulted in the construction of massive 
sun-baked bricks for various  pyramids and tombs 
structures built during this era  ● Tombs filled with items for the use of the dead in the afterlife 
  ● Various deities influenced every aspect of nature and every 
CLIMATE​: ​Hot and dry desert climate   human activity 
  ● IMPORTANT DEITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT: 
SOCIETY 
Amon Re   
● Farming in the fertile Nile Valley 
● Developed irrigation system 
Re  sun​ god 
(building canals channeling water 
from the Nile to the farms) to 
Isis  represented the devoted mother and wife; their 
nurture main crops 
most important goddess 
● The main mode of transport were 
boats and barges on the Nile 
Osiris  husband and brother of Isis, ruled over 
River but during the 1,600’s BC, 
vegetation​ and the ​dead 
Egyptians began to ride on 
horse-drawn chariots 
Horus  god of the ​sky​, son of Isis and Osiris 
 
DISCOVERIES / INVENTIONS  Ptah  creator god of Memphis 
Manufactured paper made of 
Papyrus,​ a thick paper-like 
material from the papyrus plant  POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 
● Kings or ​pharaohs​ (means ‘great 
house’ in Egyptian) ruled most of its 
history; people believed that their king 
 
was the god Horus in human form 
● Viziers​ were officials who helped the 
Hieroglyphics​ was a formal 
writing system developed by  king govern Ancient Egypt 
Ancient Egyptians containing  ● Taxes were collected in the form of 
logographic and alphabetic  crops; the government also levied a 
elements  corvee (tax paid in the form of labor) 
 
   

● The ​Cubit​ was the first 

recorded unit of length and 
one of the oldest standards 
of measurements in history. 
● The Egyptian cubit was 
subdivided into palms and 
digits –– 7 ‘palms’ of 4 
‘digits’, making 28 parts in all 
–– and was between 52.3 
and 52.4cm in length 
 
      

HISTORY 

Old  3000 -  ● Known for the construction of the great pyramids 

Kingdom  2130   ● Dynasty I​ II​ began when Egypt had a strong central 
BC  government 

Middle  2130 -  ● Was a period in history when Dynasty ​XII​, founded 

Kingdom  1580   by Amenemhet (vizier in southern Egypt) began 
BC  ● Architecture, literature, and other arts flourished 
under this dynasty 

New  1580 -  ● A period when Egypt became the world’s 

Kingdom  322  strongest power 
BC  ● It developed a permanent army that used 
horse-drawn chariots and other advanced military 
techniques used in conquering portions of SW Asia 
● Notable rulers of this era are Thutmose I and 
daughter Hatshepsut, and Thutmose III 
 

FAMOUS RULERS OF ANCIENT EGYPT 

Khufu  ● Pharaoh who built the Great Pyramids, which included 

tombs for his sons King Khafre and King Menkaure 

King Menes  ● United the Upper and Lower Egypt and formed the 
world’s first national government 
● Founded Memphis as the capital, near the 
present-day capital Cairo 

Amenemhet  ● Founded Dynasty XII of the Middle Kingdom 

● His strong successors Senustret I, Senusret III, and 
Amenemhet III helped restore Egypt’s wealth & power 

The Hyksos  ● Settlers and immigrants from Asia who overthrew 

kings  weak kings during 1670 BC by the use of war tools 
unknown to native Egyptians 

Thutmose I  ● Ruler of Dynasty XVIII (New Kingdom) who led military 

campaigns into Asia that brought Palestine and Syria 
to the Egyptian Empire 

Amenhotep IV  ● Changed his name to Akhenaton; devoted himself to 

sun god, Aton who was represented as disk of the sun 

Tutankhaton  ● Restored the old state religion allowing the worship of 
(Tutankhamen)  old deities as well as Aton 

Ramses II  ● Powerful and ambitious ruler of Dynasty XIX who 

expanded a vast deal of the Egyptian Empire and 
known for his construction of temples that 
overshadow those built before him 

Alexander the  ● Macedonian conqueror who added Egypt to his 

Great  empire in 332 BC and founded the city of Alexandria in 
the Nile river delta 

Ptolemy  ● The successor of Alexander the Great and ruled his 

dynasty known as the Ptolemies 
● They spread Greek Culture in Egypt and built temples 
to Egyptian gods, developed its natural resources, and 
increased foreign trade 

Octavian  ● Made Egypt a province of Rome after defeating the 

military forces of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony 
● Rome’s control of Egypt weakened in AD 395 when 
the Roman Empire split into eastern and western parts 
 
 

EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE 
 
CLASSIFICATIONS: 
1) Tomb Architecture 
2) Temple Architecture 
3) Obelisks 
 
4) Dwellings 
● Stone blocks are joined 
 
through ​iron clamps​ after 
3 TYPES OF TOMB ARCHITECTURE  being levered into position 
1) Mastaba  ● Early graves​ were constructed 
2) Royal Pyramid  in a board pit below ground 
3) Rock-hewn Tombs  with a wooden roof supported 
  by wooden posts and crude 
2 TYPES OF TEMPLES:  brick pillars 
1) Mortuary –– temples built for religious purposes   
2) Cult –– temples built for popular worship of ancient gods   
 

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS  ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTS 

 
 
PRINCIPAL BUILDING MATERIALS  IMHOTEP  ● The architect of King Zoser 
● Stone used mostly for monuments  (Djoser) and is considered as the 
and religious buildings  world’s first master architect 
● Built Egypt’s first pyramid 
● Herbaceous materials (from plants 
located at Saqqara, which is 
like reeds) for dwellings  recognized as the “firm 
● Mud bricks  monumental stone structure” 
  ● Existed as a mythological figure 
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION  in the minds of most scholars 
● Columnar and trabeated  until the end of the 19th century 
when he was established as a 
● Use of flat roofs using palm logs 
real historical person 
● Use of massive battered walls for  ● He was also a doctor, scribe, 
stability; windowless wall surfaces  poet, astrologer, chief minister 
 
suitable for reliefs and 
hieroglyphics   SEMNUT  ● Architect and a government 
● Use of decorations like mouldings and column capitals  official; chief architect of Queen 
inspired by natural forms or vegetative origins  Hatshepsut’s works in Deir El 
  Bahari 
● Supervised the quarrying, 
transport, and erection of twin 
  obelisks, at the time the tallest in 
the world, at the entrance to the 
Djeser-Djeseru​ or “the Sublime 
Temple of Karnak 
of the Sublimes” 
● Designed and implemented the 
Hatshepsut’s mortuary complex 
in which the focal point was the 
Djeser-Djeseru​ or “the Sublime 
of the Sublimes” (‘Holy (of) 
Holiests’), a colonnaded 
structure of perfect harmony 
built nearly 1000 years before the 
Parthenon in Greece 

   

 
● Wall thicknesses ranged from 9 meters to 24.5 meters in 
great temple enclosures  
● Natural light came through skylights and clerestories 
● Temples are distinguished by massive pylons, avenue of 
sphinxes, hypostyle halls, and great courts 
 

TOMB ARCHITECTURE – MASTABA 

 
 
MASTABA 

 
● A rectangular, flat-topped funerary mound in Ancient Egypt 
with battered sides, covering a burial chamber below 
ground 
● From the Arabic word meaning “bench” 
● Dimensions: 
○ Length: between 20-50 meters 
○ Width: between 15-37 meters 
○ Height: around 9-10 meters (30 ft) 
● Built with a North and South orientation 
 
 
● Deep tomb chamber was dug & lined with stones or bricks 
PLAN & ELEVATION OF MASTABA OF KING AHA IN SAKKARA 
● Above ground structure has a place for offerings to the “ka”, 
(1ST DYNASTY) 
the ​chapel​ with a f​ alse door 
● The ​serdab​ (or “cellar”) houses the dead person’s statue 
hidden within the masonry for protection; high up the walls 
of serdab were small openings for allowing the fragrance of 
burning incense and ritual spells to reach the statue 
 

SERDAB  FALSE DOOR 

 
 
STAIRWAY MASTABA AT BEIT KHALLAF (3RD DYNASTY) 

 
 

 
 DWELLINGS 

 
● Made of crude brick, one or two storeys high, with flat or 
arched ceilings, and a parapet roof; it is occupied by a 
loggia 
● Rooms looked forward to a North-facing court 
● For workers, barrack-like dwellings exist at pyramid sites 
like those of Chepren in Gizeh; each worker’s establishment 
constituted a considerable village laid out in rigidly formal 
lines 
  ● In better houses and mansions, columns and beams, doors 
and windows were of precious timber; a central hall or living 
 

OBELISKS  room was a typical space and raised sufficiently high with 
the help of columns to allow clerestory light on one or more 
sides 
● 3 fundamental parts of an Egyptian dwelling / mansion: 
○ Reception suite 
○ Service area 
○ Private quarters 
 
Diagram of spaces in a typical house found in Deir el Medina, 
Gurob and Amarna in Egypt 

 
Layout of spaces in a large house (mansion) for the elite families, 
 
had small suites of rooms joined by interlinked corridors 
The obelisk for Ramses II 
● A tall, narrow, four-sided, tapering monument which ends in 
a pyramid-like shape, called the pyramidion, at the top 
● Often monolithic whereas most modern obelisks are made 
of several stones and can have interior spaces 
● Associated with timelessness and memorializing for the 
dead 
● Magical protection to monuments like tombs and temples of 
Egypt 
● Carved with hieroglyphics containing the titles of the 
Pharaoh and praises to their god 
● Symbolized the sun god, ​Ra​, and during the brief religious 
reformation of Akhenaton was said to be a petrified ray of 
the Aten, the sundisk 
 
   
     
 
    

TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE  EXISTING CONDITIONS & INFLUENCE ON 

● Thick temple walls were made of limestone, sandstone or  ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE 
granite 
● Steps on how wall decorations were made:  EXISTING  INFLUENCES 
1) Chisel and smoothen the surface  CONDITION 
2) Drawing of hieroglyphs with a red 
GEOGRAPHICAL  ● Fertile river banks of the Nile served as efficient 
line by an artist and corrected 
sites for villages, cities and cemeteries (ex. 
with black lies by a chief artist  Mortuary complex) 
3) Carving low reliefs  
4) Applying a thin coat of stucco to  GEOLOGICAL  ● Abundance of stone, brick, clay and timber 
receive the color from the painter  determined Ancient Egypt’s architectural 
● Colonnades and doorways spanned by massive lintels  character as these were used as main building 
● Used torus or roll mouldings  materials 
● Ornaments were often symbolic 
CLIMATIC  ● Sufficient sunlight almost all year round made 
 
way for simplicity in design 
TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE AT A GLANCE  ● No real windows, drainage 
● Egyptians were masters in the use of  ● Used flat roofs 
color and carried out their schemes 
mainly blue, red, and yellow  RELIGIOUS  ● Monotheistic in theory but polytheistic in 
● Roofs were of heavy stone slabs  practice 
● Column height seldom exceeded 6  ● High-regard for the dead led to the building of 
lordly and massive tombs and temples 
times their own diameter; along the 
● Strong belief in the future state led to the 
types of columns/pillars used were the:  erection of monumental pyramids for the 
○ Square pillar  preservation of their dead 
○ Polygonal columns 
○ Palm columns  SOCIAL  ● Government ruled by pharaohs employed large 
○ Bell columns  states of trained craftsmen and armies of 
○ Columns with foliated capitals  laborers to build their structures 
○ Columns with Hathor-headed capitals  ● Prisoners of war also included 
○ Osiris pillar 
HISTORICAL  ● Had military and commercial contacts with 
 
other countries 

ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS AND DETAILS   

   
PYLONS  ● Monumental gateway leading to a temple 
● Usually composed of 2 masses of masonry with 
sloping sides 

SPHINX  ● A creature in Egyptian mythology that has a body of a 

lion and head of a human 
● Their representations are associated with royal tombs 
or religious temples 
● The first sphinx in Egypt depicted Queen Herepheres II 
of the Fourth Dynasty 

TRABEATED  ● Having horizontal beams and lintels 

● “Columnar and trabeated” constructions in mortuary 
temples 

HYPOSTYLE  ● A hall whose roof is supported by columns all 

HALL  throughout 
● Applied to colonnaded hall of Egyptian pylon temple 

ALABASTER  ● Calcite based material used on floor slabs of the 

pyramids at Gizeh 

RELIEF  ● Carving on a surface so that figures are raised against 

a background 

BELL-SHAPED  ● Based on the shapes of papyrus and lotus reeds 

CAPITALS 

 
 
 OTHER PARTS OF ZOSER’S PYRAMID COMPLEX (IMAGE) 
 

PYRAMIDS 

 
   

STEPPED PYRAMID OF ZOSER (2,750 BC) 

 
● The world’s first large-scale stone monument which began 
as a complete mastaba 
● Underwent 5 changes in plan to reach its final form of a total 
of 6 stages with dimensions 411ft. (east-west side) x 358 ft. 
wide x 200 ft. high 
 

 
 
 
OTHER PARTS OF ZOSER’S PYRAMID COMPLEX 
1) Colonnaded entrance –– passageway from door is lined with 
6.6 meter high drummed columns 
2) Great Court –– large court between South Tomb and the 
stepped pyramid that contained curved columns thought to 
be territorial markers associated with Heb-Sed Festival 
 
3) South Tomb –– though to be “satellite pyramids” of later 
 
Dynasties which housed the ka 
 
4) North Temple & Serdab Court –– served as the cult center of 
 
the king where offerings are made 
   
5) Heb-Sed court –– meant to provide space for the king to 
perform the Heb-Sed rituals even in the afterlife; surrounded 
by chapels 
   

EVOLUTION OF THE PYRAMID  BENT (SOUTH) PYRAMID OF SNEFRU AT 

DAHSHUR 

 
 

PYRAMID AT MEYDUM 
● The pyramid at Meidum is thought to be just the 2nd 
pyramid built after Djoser’s and may have been originally 
built for Huni, the last pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty, and was 
continued by ​Sneferu​. 
● The architect was a successor to the famous ​Imhotep​, the 
inventor of the stone built pyramid 

 
   

 
 
   

PYRAMIDS OF GIZA (2,700 BC)  KHUFU’S PYRAMID 

 
● Originally 146.4 meters high and 230.6 meter on one side 
(square)  
● Angle with respect to the ground is 51º52; 146m. High 
● Entrance is 7.3 meters off center on the north side and17 
meters above the ground 
● Pyramid is cased in tura limestone blocks bedded with thin 
lime mortar laid with fine joints 

 
 
 
   
  1) Underground chamber –– oldest chamber and never fully 
  completed due to little oxygen 
  2) Grand gallery –– rises gradually to the King’s Chamber with 
  a stepped hall (49m. long 11m. tall) ; has polished stones 
  and corbelled stone roofing 
  3) Queen’s chamber 
  4) King’s chamber –– contains 7.30 x 3.75 ft. Sarcophagus; 
  had smooth walls, polished ceilings, 60 sqm. pink granite 
  covered floors 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
King’s chamber 
● 5.2m x 10.5m long and 5.8m high lined with 
granite and chamber covered by 5 tiers of 
great stone beams, 0 beams to a tier, 
weighing 400 tons one above the other with 
voids (relieving chambers) between layers 
● Vault pairs of great stones inclined against 
one another over the King and Queen’s 
chambers