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Egyptian Architecture

The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures located in Egypt. Most were built as tombs for the country's Pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods

What is the significance of the preserving of the dead for the ancient Egyptians?

Ancient Egyptians believed in life after death, that is why preserving the body of the dead was important to keep their soul alive, enabling them to transcend into the heavens. They make tombs to protect these preserved bodies. Pyramids for Pharaohs represent a gigantic stairway for the Pharaoh to climb to join the sun god in the sky

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS

By the time of early dynastic period of Egyptian history, those with sufficient means were buried in bench-like structures known as mastabas.

A mastaba is a type of Ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with outward sloping sides that marked the burial site of many eminent Egyptians of Egypt's ancient period.

False Door
tombs offering chapel believed to be a threshold
between the world of the living and the dead

Burial Shaft
type of burial structure formed from a deep and narrow shaft sunk into natural rock
burials are placed at its bottom

Sarcophagus
funeral receptacle for a corpse forms an external layer of protection for a royal mummy and was often carved out of alabaster

The first pyramid is attributed to Architect Imhotep. He was credited with being the first to conceive the idea of stacking mastabas on top of each other creating an edifice composed of number of steps that decreased in size towards its apex.

Imhotep
responsible for the world's first known monumental stone building, the Step Pyramid at Sakkara and is the first architect we know by name.

Step Pyramid/Pyramid of Djoser

Pyramids at Giza

Great Pyramid of Giza


(also called the Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Cheops)

Pyramid of Khafre
(also Pyramid of Chephren)

Pyramid of Menkaure
(also Pyramid of Mycerinus)

Karnak
(also Great Temple of Amun)

CHARACTERISTICS OF EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE

The two predominant building materials used in ancient Egypt were sun-baked mud brick and stone, mainly limestone.

Stones were reserved for tombs and temples while bricks were used for royal palaces, fortresses, walls of temple precincts, and for subsidiary buildings.

Houses were made out of mud from Nile River.

Egyptian architecture is based mainly on religious monuments, massive structures characterized by thick, sloping walls with few openings, possibly echoing a method of construction used to obtain stability in mud walls.

All monumental buildings are post and lintel constructions, with flat roofs constructed of huge stone blocks supported by the external walls and the closely spaced columns.

There were Hypostyle halls where columns flanking the central avenue are of greater height than those of the side aisles, and this allows openings in the wall above the smaller columns, through which light is admitted over the aisle roof.

Exterior and interior walls, as well as the columns and piers, were covered with hieroglyphics and pictorial frescoes and carvings painted in brilliant colours

Ancient Egyptian temples were aligned with astronomically significant events, such as solstices and equinoxes, requiring precise measurements at the moment of the particular event.

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