EGYPTIAN CIVILISATION
- ar. indrajeet ghule
• European Societies
• ● Prehistory - Cave shelters at Lascaux, Terra
Amata, Community structures: Menhir, dolmen,
gallery and passage graves, Stonehenge, Ggantija
Malta
TIMELINE
River Valley Civilisation
• Egypt was a narrow
strip of highly
productive soil,
8-12 mile wide
along the banks of
river mile.
• The Egyptians
believed in life
after death which
became a key reason
to build tombs
• Rich clay from the Nile delta: sun-dried
bricks.
• To strengthen the clay, it was mixed with
palm leaves, reeds etc.
• Papyrus: used to make boats, baskets and
paper for scribes.
• Fine lime stone from the hills, for the
construction of Pyramids.
• Sandstone at Sisilia, used for temples,
and sacred sarcophagus
• Red and grey granite was brought from
Aswan, to make columns and architraves.
• Quarrying was done by copper chisels and
timber wedges. The stone slabs were
transported on sledges which were pulled
with ropes. During the floods, the large
stone slabs were carried by boats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CskfvgEItPA
POLITICAL SITUATAION
• Two kingdoms:
• UPPER EGYPT (in the south)
• LOWER EGYPT (delta in the north)
• United by Menes – about 3000 BC
• The political history is divided into five
broad phases:
• OLD KINGDOM (4000 BC – 2280 BC)
• Capital- Memphis
• Building of Pyramids
• FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD Source: www.kootations.com
• MIDDLE KINGDOM (2065 BC – 1783 BC)
• Capital- Thebes
• Building of Rock cut Tombs and Temples
• SECOND INTERMEDIATE PERIOD
• NEW KINGDOM (1580 BC – 1085 BC)
Source: www.tracingthepast.com
TIMELINE
• Mysterious tradition and
religious rites
• Idea of future life- great
bearing on art
• Believed that after life is an
extension of earthly
existence, with all its
requirements
• ‘Ka’ or the spirit re enters
the body, therefore
mummification was practised
• Worshippers of heavenly bodies
• No distinction between Gods
and Pharaohs
• Sacred ceremonies away from
common people
• Gods associated in TRIADS.
Example: Great Theban Triad,
which consisted of: Amon, Mut
,Khons
SOCIO CULTURE
• The Egyptian society was
divided in five classes:
• Royal family
• Priests
• Nobles
• Middle class
• Peasants
• Marked difference in the
standard of living of upper
and lower classes
Source: www.civilisations.ca
TOMBS
• The tombs were located on the western bank of Nile- the
side of the setting Sun.
• Called it the Necropolis
• Three types of tombs:
• Mastaba
• Pyramid
• Rock cut tombs
MASTABA
• Earliest form of pyramid; later used for
nobles
• During the earliest times, they buried
the dead in pits on which they heaped
sand and stones.
• Later added solid masonry over it- in
the form of a truncated pyramid
• This is known as ‘Mastaba’. (Bench in
Arabic)
• Burial chamber was deep under the ground
• The burial chamber was walled up after
placing the mummy
• The shaft leading to it was filled with
rubble and concealed to make it as
inaccessible as possible.
• Serdab: a narrow chamber of the ancient Source: Human History by G.Elliot Smith
Egyptian mastaba either concealed or
accessible only by a narrow passage and
containing a statue of the deceased. P. - Burial shaft filled with rubble.
G. - Burial chamber containing the coffin (CO), closed by a stone slab
• The Serdab had one or several statues of M. - Rubble mound of the mastaba, enclosed by a stone retaining wall
the deceased
(W).
C. - The court of offerings, surrounded and roofed by slabs of stone ®.
S. - A chamber (serdab) made of large slabs of stone, and containging a
statue of the deceased. The large slab (H) is perforated to permit
communication to be made between the statue and the court of
offerings.
T. - Table of offerings.
Tomb at Beni Hasan
GIZA
• 236m X 236m, Ht. – 147m
• Stone from the eastern
cliffs was first roughly
hewn- then floated across
the river to the bldg site
• Cutting was finished with
precision
• Ramps made of sand heaps
used for moving stones
• Decreasing courses- in form
of steps
• After reaching top- angles
were filled in top to
bottom with limestone
• ACCESSORY BUILDINGS
• Mortuary temple- connected
by a closed passage to the
valley
• Vestibule
PYRAMIDS AT GIZEH
• Pyramid of khufu (Cheops) –
largest
• Pyramid of Khafre (Chefren)
• Pyramid of Mycerinus (Menkure)
Script
• Believed that writing was
invented by the god Thoth
• The word hieroglyph comes
from the
Greek hieros(sacred)
plus glypho (inscriptions)
• The hieroglyphic script
was used mainly for formal
inscriptions on the walls
of temples and tombs.
• The script could be
deciphered with the
discovery of the Rosetta
Stone
SPINX
• whose date is unknown, is situated near
the great pyramids, in the centre of an
ancient stone quarry, and is a natural
rock cut to resemble a Sphinx, with
rough masonry added in parts. An
Egyptian Sphinx (No. 10 o) had the head
of a king, a hawk, a ram, or more rarely
a woman, on the body of a lion.
• The dimensions of the Great Sphinx,
which represents a recumbent lion with
the head of a man, are as follows : it
is 65 feet high by 188 feet long, the
face is 13 feet 6 inches wide, and the
mouth 8 feet 6 inches long.
• Greatly mutilated, it is still a marvel,
as it has been throughout the ages. The
symbol for an insoluble problem, it is,
and probably ever will be, a mystery.
• It was excavated in 1816 by Captain
Caviglia, who found atemple between the
paws, and it has since been examined by
Mariette and Maspero.
TEMPLES
• The purposes for which they were used and their
componentparts are important. They were sanctuaries where
only the king and priests entered, and in which mysteries
and processions formed a great part of the religious
services.
• they were not places for the meeting of the faithful or
the recital of common prayers, and no public ritual was
celebrated within them.
• The priests and king only were admitted beyond the
hypostyle hall, and the temple, herefore, was a kind of
royal oratory reared by the king in token of his own piety
and in order to purchase the favour of the gods.
• The " mammeisi " were
temples (dedicated to the
mysterious accouchement of I
sis) each consisting of one
small chamber with statue
and altar as at Elephantine,
approached by a flight of
steps. In this form they are
generally considered to be
the prototypes of the Greek
temples. The more usual type
of temple, However,
consisted of chambers for
the priests, with courts,
colonnades, and halls, all
surrounded by a high wall.
• In order that the student
may understand the general
distribution of the parts of
an Egyptian temple, a plan
is here given of the Temple
of Khons, near the Great
Temple of Ammon, at Karnac
on the eastern bank of the
Nile, which may be taken as
a fair example of the
ordinary type of plan.
• The entrance to the temple was
between "pylons," or massive /
sloping towers, on each side of
the central gateway,front of the
entrance were placed obelisks, and
in front of ,these an avenue of
sphinxes, forming a splendid
approach to 'the temple. This
entrance gave access to the large
outer courtyard,which was open to
the sky in the centre, and
therefore called "hypaethral"
(from two Greek words, meaning
"under the air "). This courtyard
was surrounded by a double
colonnade on three sides, and led
up to the hypostyle hall, in which
light was admitted by means of a
clerestory above, formed by the
different height of the columns.
• Beyond this is the sanctuary,
surrounded by a passage, and at
the rear is a smaller hall ; both
the last chambers must have been
dark or only imperfectly lighted.
PALM PALM PAPYRUS FLOWER HATHOR HEAD VOLUTE
CAPITAL CAPITAL CAPITAL CAPITAL CAPITAL
Assignment
1. Step Pyramid Of Zoser
2. Pyramid Of Khufu (Cheops) – Largest
3. Pyramid Of Khafre (Chefren)
4. Pyramid Of Mycerinus (Menkure)
5. Great Temple, Abu-simbel
6. Temple Of Isis, Philae
7. Temple Of Queen Hatshepsut
8. Great Temple Of Amun, Karnak
9. Temple Of Khons, Karnak
10. Temple Of Horus
References
• Presentation on Egyptian civilisation by Ar. Lisha Bendre
• Graphic History of Architecture
• A Concise History of architectural styles
• Global History of Architecture
• History of Architecture- Sir Banister Fletcher
