History of

Architecture
lesson 2
NEAR EAST vs. EGYPTIAN

March 01, 2019

The Historical Timeline of Architecture
Near East
Near East
History
Started as villages on the flat land between Tigris
and Euphrates rivers - “Mesopotamia”
Each city-state surrounded by a wall and
dominated by a large temple
Society of kings, craftsmen, soldiers, farmers,
priests
Fought and traded with each other
Near East
Mesopotamian
City-states of Ur, Babylon, Agade, Ashur and
Damascus
2334 BC, King Sargon of Agade formed the first
major empire
1792 BC, next by King Hammurabi
Instituted laws to keep order
Invention of writing - pictograms or cuneiform
records on clay tablets
Near East
Assyrian
Based in Ashur, biggest empire under King
Ashurbanipal – conquered Mesopotamia, Syria,
Palestine and Egypt
Near East
Persian
Begun by Cyrus the Great from 559 to 529 BC
Covered Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Eastern Mediterranean,
Bactria, Indus Valley and North Africa
Darius I had provinces ruled by a satrap (governors), who
guarded the roads, collected taxes and controlled the army
Capital moved from Susa to Persepolis
Darius and Xerxes tried to conquer Greece
Ended with the defeat of Darius III to Alexander the Great of
Macedonia
Near East
Religion
Each city-state worshipped their own
god for protection
People aimed to make peace with
their wrathful god

Geography & Geology

Marshlands with few natural
advantages aside from water and soil
Import materials like hardwood and
metals
Near East
Materials
 Only materials readily available was clay,
soil, reeds, rushes
 Bricks made of mud and chopped straw,
sun-dried or kiln-fired
 Timber, copper, tin, lead gold, silver
imported
Decorations
 Colossal winged-bulls (lamassu)
guarding chief portals
 Polychrome glazed bricks in blue, white,
yellow, green
 Murals of decorative continuous stone
Near East
Ziggurats
Near East
Ziggurats
 Massive structures built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and
western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step
pyramid of successively receding stories or levels.
 On top was a small temple or shine (cella - none survive)
 Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included a
courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters, around
which a city was built

Functions
 According to Herodotus
 High place for priest during flood that occurs annually
 Security for priest (3 stairs only, so requires less guards)
Near East
Ziggurats Examples

Ziggurat @ Ur, Iraq

Near East
Palaces
 Kings celebrated their victories, wealth and power by building
large palaces

Palace @ Persepolis
 50 years to build
 People from all over the empire were involved in its
construction
 Variety of architectural styles – social influence
 parts: audience halls, reception halls, storerooms for tributes
and valuables, military quarters, apadana – tallest building,
with 36 columns of 20m height
Near East
Palace @ Persepolis
Parts
 Main entrance

7  Gate house
 Apadana (audience hall)
6 5
4  Palace of Darius 1
 Palace of Xerces 1
3
 Hall or Hundred Column
 Treasury

2
1
Near East
Dwellings
 Known as “Megaron”
 Entrance is on shorter side
 Portico - colonnaded space
forming an entrance or
vestibule, with a roof
supported on one side by
columns
Egyptian
Egyptian
History
 Wealthy country despite the desert - every year, Nile would
overflow, leaving the land fertile for growing crops
 Nile River was a trade route
 Gold from Nubia in the south
 Royal cities at Memphis and Thebes
 A single kingdom for most of its existence - unified under the
centralized omnipotent authority of the pharaoh (king)
Geography & Geology
 Narrow stretch of fertile and arable land along the Nile
 Beyond riverbanks, barren desert and rugged cliffs prevented
attack from invaders
 Mediterranean and Red seas
Egyptian
Pharaohs
 Seen as gods dwelling on earth
 Sole masters of the country and its inhabitants
 Builders and leaders
 Initiated the design, financing, quarrying and
transporting of materials, organization of labor and
construction itself
Society
 Divided into groups, by order of importance: senior priests, officials,
noblemen, and army commanders
 Architects, engineers, theologians, masons, sculptors, painters, laborers,
peasants, prisoners
 Most ordinary Egyptians were farmers
 Weaving, glass-making, pottery, metal, jewelry and furniture
 Astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, music and writing literature and
history written on papyrus and stone tablets
Egyptian
Religion
 Cult of many gods representing nature: sun,
moon, stars, animals
 After death, a persons soul went on to enjoy
eternal life in kingdom of the God Osiris -
imagined this kingdom as a perfect version of
Egypt
 Pharaohs were buried, bringing with them the
things they might need in the afterlife, even living
people
 Wished for a fine burial, embalmment and funeral
rites, and a permanent tomb or "eternal dwelling"
 Dead body had to be preserved to house the spirit
 Remove insides, dry out the body, filled with
linen, masked and bandaged
Egyptian
Architectural Character
 Afterlife - life and house on earth is temporary, the
tomb is permanent
 For sustenance and eternal enjoyment of the
deceased
 Religion is the dominant element in Egyptian
architecture
Materials
 For monuments & religious building:
 Stone was abundant in variety and quantity
 Other materials, metals and timber were imported
 For houses & palaces
 Mud bricks: for houses, palaces (reeds, papyrus,
palm branch ribs, plastered over with clay)
Egyptian
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
Walls
 Battered wall - diminishing in width towards the top for stability
 Thickness: 9 to 24m at temples
 Unbroken massive walls, uninterrupted space for hieroglyphics
Egyptian
Decorations
 Mouldings such as "gorge" or
"hollow and roll" was
inspired by reeds
 Torus moulding
 Hieroglyphics were pictorial
representations of religion,
history and daily life
 Avenue of sphinxes: rows of
monsters (body of lion, head
of man, hawk, ram) leading to
monuments
Egyptian
Mastabas
 Rectangular flat-topped
funerary mound, with
battered side, covering a
burial chamber below
ground
 First type of Egyptian tomb
 Developed from small and
inconspicuous to huge an
imposing
Egyptian
Parts of Mastabas
 Stairway with 2 doors: one for
ritual, second was a false door
for spirits
 Column Hall
 Offering Chapel
 Serdab (contains statue of
deceased)
 Offering room with Stelae
(stone with name of deceased
inscribed)
 Sarcophagus – Egyptian coffin
Egyptian
Pyramids
 massive funerary structure of
stone or brick
 Comes in complexes
 Offering chapel (north or east
side)
 Mortuary chapel
 Raised and enclosed
causeway leading to west
 Valley building for
embalmment and internment
rites
Egyptian
Parts of Pyramids
 Entrance
 Descending Passage
 Ascending Passage
 Grand Gallery
 Air Shafts
 Weight Relieving Chamber
 Queen’s Chamber
 King’s Chamber
Egyptian
Pyramids @ Gizeh
 Most magnificent of pyramids
 Equilateral sides face cardinal
points
 Forms a world-famous building
group
 Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu)
 Pyramid of Chephren (Khafra or
Khafre)
 Pyramid of Mykerinos
(Menkaura)
 The Great Sphinx shows King
Chepren as a man-lion protecting
his country
Egyptian
Other types of Pyramids

Bent Pyramid @ Seneferu Step Pyramid of Zoser, Saqqara

• World's first large-scale monument
in stone
• Designed by Imhotep
Egyptian
Rock Cut or Rock Hewn Tombs
 Built along side hills
 For nobility, not for royalty

Tomb @ Beni Hasan Tombs of Kings, Thebes

Egyptian
Temples
 Mortuary Temples (Funerary Temples)
 Built for worships in honor of their Pharaohs
 Cult Temples
 Built for worships in honor of their Gods
 Parts of Temples
 Pylons
 Large Open Court Open to the
Sky
 Hypostyle Hall (under pillars)
 Sanctuary
 Chapels all enclosed by high
girdle wall
Egyptian
Temples

 Great Temple of Ammon, Karnak  Temple of Ammon, Luxor

 Grandest temple  Ipet resyt “the
 Work of many Kings southern santuary”
 Ipet isut “the most selected of
Places’ (northern)
Egyptian
Temples

 Mammisi Temple  Great Temple of Abu Simbel

 Prototype of Greek Doric  Constructed by Rameses II
Temples  Entrance forecourt leads to imposing
 Small Chapel - associated pylon with 4 rock-cut colossal statues
with nativity of God of Rameses sitting over 20 m high
Egyptian
Temples

 Temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri

 Senenmut – Architect
 Osiris – God of afterlife, Column Design
Egyptian
Pylons
 Monumental Gateway to the
temple consisting of a slanting
walls flanking the entrance
portal
Obelisk
 upright stone square in plan, with an electrum-capped
pyramidion on top
 sacred symbol of sun-god Heliopolis
 usually came in pairs fronting temple entrances
 height of nine or ten times the diameter at the base
 four sides feature hieroglyphics
 Obelisk, Piazza of S. Giovanni
 Originally from temple of Ammon, Karnak
Egyptian
Fortresses
 Mostly found on west bank of Nile or on islands
 Close communications with other fortresses
 Fortess of Buhen
 Headquarters & largest fortified town near Nubia
 From here they could trade and invade lands to
the south

Dwellings
 Made of crude brick
 1 or 2 storey high, Flat roof deck
 Three main Parts:
 Reception suite on north side - central hall or
living room with high ceiling and clerestory
 Service quarters, and Private quarters
Mesopotamian Egyptian
Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
--- Nile River
Kings --- Pharaoh
Pictograms & Cuneiforms --- Hieroglyphics
Colossal Bull --- Sphinx
Ziggurats --- Pyramids
Palaces --- Temples
Clay Tablets --- Stone Tablets & Papyrus
Murals on walls --- Hieroglyphics on walls
N N

W ZIGGURATS E W PYRAMIDS E
---

S S
end