History of Art and Architecture -1

Arch 140

Ancient Egyptian Architecture

Dr. Sherif Elsayed Elsaid Donia

Faculty of Architecture and planning
Qassim University

1444 - 2022
 Ancient civilizations throughout history

Ancient civilizations throughout history …

▪ Ancient Egyptian civilization ... from (5000 BC - AD 500).

▪ The civilization of Mesopotamia... From (4000 BC - 1500 AD) - it includes both:
• Sumerian civilization ... from (5000 BC - 500 AD).
• Akkadian civilization ... in the period from (2200 - 2350) BC
• Babylonian civilization ... from (1600 - 2000) BC
• The Hittite civilization ... from (1600 - 1717) BC
• Assyrian civilization ... From (612 - 1350) BC
• The new Babylonian civilization ... from (539 - 642) BC
• The Persian - Sassanid civilization ... from (330 - 539) BC

▪ Greek civilization ... from 3000 B.C. - 250 A.D.

▪ Roman civilization ... from (750 BC - AD 750).

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Ancient Egyptian Architecture
Geographical factors Geological factors Climatic factors Religious factors Social factors

Factors affecting the formation of Ancient Egyptian / Pharaonic architecture

Geographical factors:
▪ Name: In heavenly books it was known as Egypt.
▪ The ancient Egyptians gave it many names such as (black earth), which is a symbol of soil
color and planting density.
▪ Egypt has enjoyed a distinguished geographical location in the confluence of the world's
continents, which facilitates external communication.
▪ It is located on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and therefore it controls foreign
trade since ancient times through the entrances and exits of these seas.
▪ It includes a longitudinal green stripe extending on both sides of the Nile bordered by Ancient Egyptian
a barren, sandy desert. The Nile River is considered the main nerve of the country’s life and
the establishment of cities for the living and the dead.
▪ It affected the architecture of the neighboring countries, especially the architectural
planning of the dwellings, the decorative designs, the mud bricks, the construction of hills
and the construction of dams and arches.

Geological factors:
▪ The natural materials available in Egypt are clay and wood, and all kinds of stone,
including sandy, alabaster, and granite, and these materials were used in buildings,
decorations, and decorations.
▪ Granite was used in the construction of temples, statues and tombs, and coarse red granite
was used in the manufacture of huge and black sculptures for the quality of its material and
retaining its color.
▪ Waterways and swamps rich in papyrus and lotus plants abounded.
▪ The ancient Egyptian used wood for architectural works, adobe bricks in homes.

Manifestations of agricultural life in ancient Egypt

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Geographical factors Geological factors Climatic factors Religious factors Social factors

Climatic factors …
▪ Egypt has a relatively mild climate, and the Egyptian has been able to adapt and prepare its
buildings to adapt to the climatic factors prevailing in the country through the opening and the
thickness of the walls.
▪ The ceilings were horizontal with slight inclination according to the amount of rain, and were
thicker of stone to protect from the sun's heat.

Religious factors …
▪ Civilization was based on faith, and therefore it is the most deeply rooted nation.
▪ The ancient Egyptians were distinguished by monotheism and then by the reverence of some
symbols, such as the sun, moon, and stars.
▪ The strength and greatness of these gods appeared in the temples that were erected for them. The
most important phenomenon in their religious beliefs is the return of the soul after death, which
made them evaluate the eternal pyramids as an expression of the immortality of the dead - believing
that the houses are for temporary life, temples for permanent life and eternity.

Social factors …
▪ The ancient Egyptian civilization arose on the shoulders of workers and manufacturers.
▪ They created the best methods of digging the walls of cemeteries, photographing Egyptians in war
and play, textile and handicrafts, musical instruments and metalwork.
▪ The Egyptians also advanced in various sciences such as astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy.
▪ The main sources of knowledge of architecture in ancient times were the writings and drawings
recorded on the walls of the Pharaonic buildings, as well as what appeared in the papyri.
▪ The drawings found in some ancient tombs recorded the daily work of Egyptians in sports, hunting,
and handicrafts such as weaving, porcelain, metal, and furniture, which had the greatest impact on
the prosperity and prosperity of Egyptians' lives.
Manifestations of religious life in ancient Egypt

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 Architectural features of Ancient Egyptian / Pharaonic

Architectural features of Ancient Egyptian / Pharaonic …

▪ It started from 5000 years until the first century to spread Christianity.
▪ The ancient Egyptians were credited with setting the building technology triangle and its ribs consist of :-
• The unit of construction, which is the brick mold that the Egyptian invented 8,000 years ago and gave
him his name (Toubti) and determined his shape and proportions.
• The unit of measurement, such as the architectural arm, invention of numbers, and creation of units of
time measurement from the second to the year.
• Forming unit such as straight line, circles, curves, and related trigonometry and descriptive geometry.

▪ Pharaonic architecture began to form on both banks of the Nile from clay and raw brick, and then from stone and granite.
▪ The columns and cornices are of vegetable origin.
▪ The walls were tilted in.
▪ Except the ancient Egyptian, the outskirts of the upper facades of the buildings with papyrus fibers and rope ropes, which
were developed to the Corniche.
▪ Engineers and artists settled on the technical bases of the Egyptian styles in stone architecture, and it was a style in which
clarity and direction were straightforward.
▪ Reducing bends and complications is the unique style for this period.
Manifestations of architecture in ancient Egypt

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Design Walls and Openings Pharaonic Columns Ceilings 3
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First: Design …
▪ Pharaonic buildings were characterized by simplicity, greatness, and greatness that make
the individual feel strong and stable.
▪ Use rectangular and square shapes with space series (spaces) in the design.
▪ The Egyptian temple was distinguished by the straightness of the directions in its main axis,
the symmetry in its parts, and the use of rectangular forms that are divided into several smaller
rectangles.
▪ In view of the Egyptian lighting's high intensity and high temperature, the engineer dispensed
with the large holes, so the walls appeared as large flats free of these openings.
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Second: Walls and Openings … It was distinguished by the following
▪ Small holes, and large wall spaces with small upper openings to emit light from them.
▪ Increase the thickness of the walls and their inclination to the interior from above, which
increases the strength of the wall and its resistance to earthquakes that were widespread in Egypt
at the time.
▪ The façades of the temples are designed to give them an atmosphere of darkness and a sense of
dread from a religious point of view.

Third: Pharaonic Columns …

▪ Initially, it was from lists of woven or scattered joints tied cross-section with vegetable
materials, then filled with blanks and made for them by clay loam, and then developed to show
stone pillars that took on floral patterns

Forth: Ceilings…
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▪ The Egyptian used palm trunks for roofing in some cases with overloads, and used woven or
newspaper in cases where loads are not required.
▪ The woven robe was placed in two orthogonal arches to cover the rooms, as the clay was used to 1- Horus temple floor plan 2- The temple main entrance 3- The temple main atrium
cover it. 4- The temple columns 5- The columns foyer

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 The periods of Egyptian civilization throughout Pharaonic history

The periods of Egyptian civilization throughout Pharaonic history … Pharaonic Egyptian history is composed of 30 families

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 Early Kingdom Middle Kingdom New Kingdom

The most important architectural works in the Early Kingdom

1- The Pyramid of Zoser / Saqqara ...
▪ King Zoser built it a mile away from the cliff of Saqqara, to move away from the rest of the
tombs.

▪ This pyramid is the first royal memorial tomb and one of the oldest stone buildings in Egypt.

▪ It consists of six uneven terraces with a height of 62 meters, and is covered with white
limestone.

▪ The interior consists of a network of corridors and corridors, while the burial chamber of
the king is granite and marble.

▪ This pyramid was designed by the Minister of King Zoser (Eng. Amenhotep), who brought
about a radical change in architecture represented by the following points:

1. The tomb design is hierarchical. Layout and Façade of

Zoser Pyramid
2. Imitating the characteristics of botanical architecture in architecture, as his grandparents did.
3. The beginning of the use of stones as a basic material in construction instead of adobe.

▪ The Zoser Hierarchical Group consists of the following : • The Step Pyramid
• The entrance foyer
• The mortuary temple
• Valentine's Temple
• The seat of the statue
• Southern Cemetery
• North house
• South House.
• A wall surrounding the whole group.
An external perspective of
Zoser Pyramid

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2- The Pyramids of King Snefru ...

▪ King Senefru, founder of the Fourth Dynasty and father of the famous Pharaoh Khufu who built the Great Pyramid.
▪ He send a huge fleet to Phenicia to import rare cedar wood because there are no good woods in Egypt suitable for large facilities
such as pyramids and temples that need a lot of wooden skis and girders, as well as to build ships that have been active in their
manufacture and rides for commercial exchange with neighboring countries.
▪ He worked to secure Egypt's western and southern borders from enemies, and his reign was marked by stability and justice.
▪ Three pyramids were built for himself (the first is the Meidum pyramid, which is a transitional stage between the listed pyramid and
the real pyramid, then the two pyramids of Dahshur, the red pyramid and the inclined / curved pyramid).
▪ The Pyramid of Meidum was built 92 meters high and at an inclination angle of about 51 degrees (Figure 3.2).
▪ The oblique pyramid was built at a height of 102 m and was divided into two parts in the middle, as its angle of inclination changes
in the upper part from the bottom.
▪ The Red Pyramid was built at a height of 104 and its base is 220 square meters and its inclination angle is about 43 degrees. Its name
is red, due to the red rust layer on top of stones. It is the third largest Egyptian pyramid after the Khufu and Khafra hierarchies
(Figure 4.1).

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The Three Great Pyramids and Their Temples ...

▪ Each pyramid of the ancient state has two temples, one of which is attached to the pyramid on the eastern side and is called (Funerary Temple) or (Temple of Rituals) where
offerings were made to the spirit of the deceased, and the second is held on the eastern side also and is called (Valley Temple) where the funerary ceremonies of the deceased
king were held From the purification of the body and embalming, and linking these two temples an upward path that connects them, as there were special priests to serve these
temples.

The Three Pyramids - Giza General location of the three pyramids and next to the funerary temples

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The Three Great Pyramids and Their Temples

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3- The Great Pyramid of Khufu ...

▪ Khufu is the second king of the Fourth Dynasty, the Old Kingdom.
▪ He built the Great Pyramid and inherited from his father Senefru a rich and powerful
kingdom.
▪ The most important buildings of the pyramid of Khufu. It was built by the engineer (Ham
Uno) and was built on an area of 13 acres, and the pyramid has two entrances on the northern
side, it was 146.5 meters high, but now it is 138.6 meters and the length of its square base is
230 meters and its inclination angle is between 50 to 51 degrees.
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▪ The Pyramid was built of limestone and is the original stone of the place. The pyramid was
built with solid stone, and the number of stones used to build it was 2.3 million stones,
weighing between 2.5 - 15 tons.
▪ The Entrance is on the northern side, at an altitude of 20 m. Next to the pyramid, there are
three pyramids dedicated to the king's wives.

Facts baffled the world about the Great Pyramid ...

• The Great Pyramid is located on a point on the surface of the Earth, located quite a third of
the distance between the equator and the North Pole.
• The orbit that passes through the center of the pyramid divides the continents and oceans
into two completely halves.
• The four pillars of the pyramid accurately indicate the four original directions (North -
South - East - West).
• The Pyramid of Khufu is the second largest place with electromagnetic energy fields
which are 13 gauss while the Earth has only 1 gauss.

1- King Khufu 2- Pyramid of Khufu 3- The pyramid of Khufu and the three small pyramids of the queens

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Khufu Pyramids

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4- The pyramid of King Khafra (the average) ...

▪ The Pharaoh's Khafre or Khafran from the Fourth Dynasty, which is the third or fourth
Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty in the Old Kingdom.

▪ He built the second pyramid in Giza.

▪ The Pyramid of Khafra is similar in magnificence to the campus of Khufu. His features are
identified by the sphinx next to his sanctuary, which is represented by a lion with a human
head. A sculpted image of his temple in the Valley of the Kings was also found, and a statue
of King Sitting is now in the Egyptian Museum.

▪ Khafre’s Pyramid is the second pyramid of Giza pyramids with a height of 143.5 m, but it is
now 136.4 m. Each side has a length of 215.5 m, and a tilt angle of 53.10 degrees.
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▪ The Entrance leads to a corridor that holds its ceiling from granite and has a pitch angle of 22
degrees, and the second entrance leads to a corridor of rock that leads to an empty room,
perhaps used for funerary furniture.
▪ The Funerary temple is located to the east of the pyramid and is clearly a limestone made of
granite blocks covering the walls and ground.

1- King Khafra.
2- Pyramid of Khafre.
3- The pyramid of Khafra and in front of it the Sphinx.

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The top of the pyramid of Khafre

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5- The pyramid of King Menkaure (the youngest) ...

▪ Menkaure or Menkaure, the small Egyptian pharaoh from the Fourth Dynasty during the era of the ancient state.

▪ He is the son of King Khafra in the era of the ancient Egyptians.

▪ The Pyramid of Menkaure, the smallest pyramid of Giza, with a height of 66 m. It was built on the edge of the sloping plateau and the base area was about 108.5 square meters.
However, as a result of the subsequent removal of the stones for use in other purposes, these measurements have changed.

▪ There are two entrances from the northern side, and they are under some and the two descend into two rooms, one is a warehouse and the other is the burial room.

1- King Menkaure 2, 3 - Pyramid of Menkaure and by the side of the three pyramids of the queens

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The pyramid of Menkaure

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4- The Sphinx ...

▪ The Sphinx is a statue of a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human being
carved out of limestone, and it is likely that it was originally covered with a layer of plaster and
colored, and traces of the original colors are still visible next to one of his ears.
▪ Located on the Giza Plateau on the West Bank of the Nile in Giza, the Sphinx is also a guard of
the plateau.
▪ It is the oldest known large sculptures, its length is about 73.5 meters, including 15 meters
the length of its two front legs, its width is 6 meters, and its highest elevation from the ground is
about 20 meters to the top of the head.
▪ This statue looks east, so the original faces have been changed in the last century to accommodate
the sphinx.
The Sphinx

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The Sphinx

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