Egyptian Architecture pt 2

General Characteristics

• simplicity

• solidity

• grandeur

Materials

• sun-baked bricks

• stone

• granite

Monumental Architecture

mainly employed on pyramids, tombs, temples

• columnar

• trabeated

Sphinxes

• mythical monsters each with the body of a lion and the head of a

  • man

  • ram

  • woman

• Egyptian temples are approached by impressive avenues of Sphinxes

• ornamentation

Plans

symmetry as the most important rule in egyptian planning

Walls

• usually thick, solid, and unbroken by windows

• interior -hieroglyphics

• exterior - battered walls

Interior Walls

Hieroglyphics

Exterior Walls

battered walls

Openings

windows were not used

Roofs

flat

Columns

• simplest form of support

• has seven types

  • square pillar

  • polygonal

  • palm-type

  • bud and bell

  • foliated capital

  • hathor headed

  • osiris pillars

Ornaments

• symbolical

• types of egyptian ornaments

  • solar disc

  • vulture - protection

  • scarab - resurrection

  • papyrus, lotus, pal - fertility

  • grapes - eternity

  • spiral and feathes - eternity

• sphinx

Mastabas

• bench tombs

• rectangular flat roofed structures with sloping sides about 75 degrees

• 2 doors

  • true door - used by followers for offerings

  • false door - for spirits

Serdab

• inner secret chamber

• contains statues of deceased family members

Outer Chamber with Stele

• offering chamber

• stele - upright stone slab inscribed with the name of the dead

Sarcophagus

chamber that contains Egyptian coffin

Rock-hewn Tombs

• tombs meant to offer same levels of comfort the dead person enjoyed in his former life

• entire rooms were replicated around the burial chamber

• sacrificial chambers - built on the hillsides on the high west bank of the Nile

• used by nobility

The Royal Pyramids

• built by kings as their tombs

• massive burial structure

• square base with 4 triangular sides meeting at the apex

• entrance: north sides

• four sides were oriented at the four cardinal points

3 Types of Pyramid

• step

• slope

• bent

Stepped Pyramid of Djoser

• Sakkara, 2778 BC

• replica of the pharaoh’s palace in Memphis

• prominent structure: defeat tomb robbers

• finished in stepped limestone and brick walls

• built by Imhotep, no less than 5 changes in plan

• layers are inclined against a steep sided core and was enlarged further

• underground chambers were finished prior to the structure

• a pit was approached by a tunnel that emerged in an open ramp

• later deepened and a granite tomb inserted at the bottom

Great Pyramids of Menkare, Khafre, Khufu

• four sides face the cardinal points: equilateral triangles

• 3 separate internal chambers due to a change of plam

• subterranean and queen’s chambers are discarded projects

• original entrance was a descending corridor that was modified when an ascending one was cut in the ceiling

• queens chamber discarded to expand the grand gallery

• covered by ramped corbelled vault of seven great courses

• top is the king’s chamber where the granite sarcophagus was located

Temples

• sanctuary

• only pharaohs and priests can enter

Cult Temple

worship of gods

mortuary temple

worship of pharaohs or built in honor of pharaohs

Entrance Pylon

massive sloping towers fronting an obelisk

Hypaethral Court

• large outer cout open to the sky

• surrounded on 3 sides by double collonades

Hypostyle Hall

• pillared hall in which the roof rests on columns to which was admitted a clerestory

The Sanctuary

surrounded by passages and chambers used in connection with the temple service

Temple of Menuhotep, Deir El Bahari, Thebes

• mortuary temple connected to a corridor tomb

• terraced two levels at the base of steep cliffs

• lower has a tree planted forecourt with inclined walkway to upper

• double colonnades with a small solid pyramid