Egyptian Architecture - Part 1

Egypt

consist of a narrow strip of fertile, alluvial soil along both banks of the Nile flanked by shelves of barren land and rugged cliffs beyond which lie arid, desert plateau.

Herodotus

who said “Egypt is a gift of the Nile”

Stone

Most abundant material in quantity and variety Chief kinds: limestone, sandstone, alabaster, granite, quartzite and basalt

Copper

imported from the Sinai Peninsula

Tin

Imported for making bronze

sun-dried mud bricks

used to construct houses and palaces

date palm

indigenous wood material were sometimes used for roofing

cedar and other wood

imported

palm leaves, reeds, rushes

used to frame or reinforce brick construction; used as mats, panels, partitions and fences

summer and spring

two seasons

rare rainfall

climate is warm (contributed to the preservation of buildings)

no real windows; unbroken massive walls; uninterrupted exterior surface

give the 3 architectural translation

seasonal flooding

once a year the river floods, which stops agricultural production

batter

for structural stability (counter the soil shrinkage and expansion due to flooding)

Hapi

god of the Nile

Anubis

god of embalming

Aten or Ra

sun god

Hathor

queen of heaven

Seth

evil brother of Osiris

Isis

sister and wife of Osiris (greatest goddess of Egypt)

Osiris

god of the underworld

Amun

god of the gods

Royal Family

communing with the gods

Hypostyle hall

the grandest achievement of Egyptian axial planning

Hypostyle hall

a colonnaded space carrying a flat roof

The Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak

Battered Walls

sloping inwards

Egyptian Gorge moulding

Egyptian doors

supported by lintel

Egyptian false doors

door to the afterlife

Egyptian doors

trabeated system

Roofs

heavy stone slabs side by side; flat roofs; served for ceremonies and processions

Roof carried by trabeated system

Roof carried by closely-spaces columns

Columns

seldom exceed six times the diameter in height; elaborated with painting and low relief carving

Capital

Lotiform columns

Hathor Columns ar Dendera

Osiride Pillars

A closed (bud) style capital

Open capital with engaged columns

Open papyrus column

Composite/complex column

combination of open lotus and Hathor head

Mouldings

consisted of the torus or roll moldings; capped or substituted by the cobra or the Kheker cresting

Cavetto cornice

deep moulding sometimes of great dimensions which crowned their pylons, temples and decorative shrines

Torus

a semicircular projecting moulding which was carried above the architrave and down the quoins of their buildings

Kheker Frieze

the name of the decorative motif common in ancient Egyptian architecture from atleast as early as the 3rd dynasty; rows of knots in decorative carved or painted friezes around the upper edges of buildings

Ornaments

masters in the use of colors

Hiergoglyphics

a complex system, writing figurative, symbolic, and phonetic all at once, in the same text, the same phrase

Black

“kem”

White and Silver

“hedj”

Blue

“irtyu”

Azurite

“tefer”

Lapis lazuli

“khesbedj”

Malachite

“wahdj”

Verdigris

“hes-byah”

Turquoise

“mefkhat”

Painting

purity of colors was important to ancient egyptians and the artist would usually complete everything in one color before moving on to the next. Painting would be finished off with fine brushwork to outline the work and add limited interior detail

White

pigment was produced from crushed bone or ivory

Black

was created from the soot produced by oil lamps or by roasting crushed ivory

Indigo and Madder lake

two important lake pigments

Indigo

a dark blue color, was create from wode, a leguminous plant which has pods and root nodules, obtained in Asia

Madder lake

was created from the fleshy roots of the madder plant obtained around the Mediterranean. Dark reddish-purple color

Lapis lazuli

had to be imported over the Sinai Desert from central Asia, and was accordingly used for the most important mages

miniature

a small painting, made so small because of the cost of the red paint used in painting it