town-planning

historical and analytical account of cities in history

Egyptian, Mesopotamia, Greek

What is town?

The town is an involved organism under constant change. In its living

mesh, public structures are bonded to the places where people live.
The town presents us with the new set of environmental ideas, such as
street, the public square, the defensive wall and its gates.
It leads to the building inventions-for example, the canal and the
granary, the palace and the bath, the market, the bakery, shops,
restaurants, hospitals, libraries, etc.

Study of town planning starts from history for example

Indus valley civilization, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek,
Medieval, etc.
 TOWN-PLANNING
THE ART OF LAYING OUT TOWNS WITH DUE CARE FOR THE
HEALTH AND COMFORT OF INHABITANTS, FOR INDUSTRIAL AND
COMMERCIAL EFFICIENCY, AND FOR REASONABLE BEAUTY OF
BUILDINGS

AN ART OF INTERMITTENT ACTIVITY.

IT BELONGS TO SPECIAL AGES AND CIRCUMSTANCES.

ATTENTION IS DRAWN TO METHODS OF ARRANGING AND

LAYING OUT SUCH TOWNS.

IN GENERAL, ANCIENT TOWN-PLANNING USED NOT MERELY

THE STRAIGHT LINE AND THE RIGHT ANGLE BUT THE TWO
TOGETHER.
Historical and Analytical account of cities in
Mesopotamia:
Mesopotamia means land between rivers.
Four broad segments of chronology will suffice to govern our discussion.
The first is the so-called

Protoliterate Period, from ca.3500 to 3000 B.C.

Early Dynastic Period, from 3000 to 2350 B.C.
Sumerian Period, from 2350 to 1600 B.C.
Assyrian Period, from 1350 to 612 B.C.

1-Protoliterate Period:

During this time , the towns, which had probably evolved

from agricultural villages, acquired their battlements of ring
walls; and the temple and the ziggurat began to gain
architectural definition. Political authority resided in an
assembly of male citizens that selected short-term war
leaders.
 2-Early Dynastic Period:

When the role of these leaders was retained in times of peace as well,
kingship, first elective and then hereditary, became established. With it
raised the monumental palace, an administrative center which employed a
large retinue of bureaucrats and entertainers & occupied itself with raising
and supplying an army and maintaining the defensive system of the city.

3-Sumerian Period:
This period saw the rise of empire, the collective rule of several city-states
through the might of a sovereign king. The first part of the period is
dominated by the Third Dynasty of Ur whose prodigious building activity
includes the Ziggurate of Ur-Nammu, the high point of that building type.

4-Assyrian Period:
The northern region of the two rivers now flourishes at the expense of
lower Mesopotamia. The Assyrian by their imposing state reliefs and
their palaces, like the one at Khorsabad.
 The layout of cities:
There is not enough at the lower levels of explored mounds to give us a total
image of the Mesopotamian city before the Early Dynastic Period. By then a
dozen or so cities containing from 10,000 to 50,000 people prospered, both
in lower Mesopotamia or Sumer and further north in Babylonia.

UR
The first city
Cities began to emerge in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) around 4500
years ago. Ur, the capital of ancient Sumeria, was the worlds first
city. It supported a complex and sophisticated society.

Ur(Iraq):
The cities were closed by a wall and surrounded by suburban
villages and hamlets.
The two monumental centers were the Ziggurat complex with its
own defensive wall, overseen by a powerful priesthood, and Palace
of the king.
Lesser temples were sprinkled here and there within the rest of the
urban fabric, which was a promiscuous blend of residential and
commercial architecture.
Small shops were at times incorporated into the houses.
In the later Sumerian period at Ur, an example of a bazaar was
found.
 8
6
1.Temenos Precinct
5
2.Nimin-Tabba Temple
7 3.Royal
Cementery
1
4.Royal Mausolea
4 5.Residential Area 6.City
3
Wall 7.Fortification
5
9 2. 5 Tower 8.North Harbor
9.West Harbor

7
7

6
Traffic along the twisted network of unpaved streets was
mostly pedestrian. At Ur, one sees on occasion a low flight of
steps against a building from which riders could mount, and the
street corners were regularly rounded to facilitate passage.

Street width at the very most , would be 3 meters (9 feet) or

so, and that only for the few principal thoroughfares that led to
the public buildings. These would be bordered with the houses
of the rich.

Poorer folk lived at the back ,along narrow lanes and alleys. It
is hard to imagine much wheeled traffic in this maze, though
both service carts (with solid wheels) and chariots had been in
use from an early date.

Once walled the land became precious, and the high value of
private property kept public space to a minimum. Ample squares
or public gardens were very rare.
The houses were grouped into congested blocks, where party
walls were common.
 Ur, residential area
southeast of the royal
mausolea in the
twentieth century
B.C.;Plan

C
.

B.
Bazar
C.
Chapel
 1. Courtyard
2. Entry Vestibule Architects
3. Reception Room designed
(Liwan)
4. Private Chapel
perfect house
5. Kitchen plan,
3. 6. Lavatory rectangles
7. Stair case divided neatly
8. Drain
1. 2. 8. 4 9.Shop into orthogonal
. rooms around a
7.
6. central living
5. space. But the
1. reality of living
1. town played
1. havoc with the
conceptual
3. order of the
1. architect. The
4. building lots
were not of
uniform size.
Each house
9. was compelled
to fit into a
Ur, Residential quarter between the Ziggurat predetermined
precinct and the West Harbor , Plan space.
The houses were , for the most part, one-storey structures of
mud-brick, with several rooms wrapped around a central court.
There were usually no outside windows, no attempt to contribute
to a street architecture.
The wealthier classes of Ur lived in ample hoses of dozen or so
rooms, arranged on two storeys, and whitewashed inside and out.

Temple and Ziggurats:

The temple constituted the heart of the Mesopotamian city.

For the townspeople the fields and their produce belong to the deity.
The seeds, draught animals, and implements of tiling were supplied
by the temple, and the harvest was stored on its grounds for
distribution to the community. Craftsmen, organized in guilds,
offered part of their output to the temple, and so did fishermen with
their catch and builders with their labor.
The temple complex was the hub of an economic system that has
been described as theocratic socialism. With its own wall around it ,
it formed the last bulwark against the citys enemies
 There were
two ways in
which this
temple differed
from others in
the city. It
stood on a
tremendous
platform called
the ziggurat,
and being free
of the
pressures of
density in its
ample precinct,
its form could
afford to be
both regular
and open.
Khorsabad:

The city was a royal Assyrian foundation, begun in 706 B.C., and
abandoned, unfinished, shortly afterward.
It covered 2.5 Sq.Km. (almost 1 Sq.mile).
There were two arched gates on each side of the square, guarded
by stone demons in the form of human-headed bulls.
On the North-West side one of the gates had been replaced by a
bastion that served as a platform for the royal place.

The Royal place:

The administrative court of honor is at the top of the plan, with the great
Throne Room on the left.
The entrance court is associated with a number of temples grouped
along the west side. They were all served by single ziggurat that was no
other example of this Mesopotamian building type.
 4.

3.
2.

1. Citadel wall

2. Entrance court
3. Court of honor
4. Unexcavated

Khorsabad (the ancient Dur Sharrukin,

Iraq), Assyrian city founded by
SargonII (721-705 B.C.), Plan
 Court Of Un-
Entrance Honor excavated
Temple Court

Khorsabad, citadel with royal palace Citadel

Wall
 EGYPTIAN TOWN PLANNING
REASONS FOR THE FOUNDATION OF A NEW SETTLEMENT:-
SECURITY

ECONOMICS

CULTIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE NEEDS.

POLITICAL MOTIVES SEEM TO HAVE LED AKHENATEN TO FOUND

AKHETATEN

THE MAIN CONSIDERATION WHERE TO BUILD WAS

GENERALLYPROXIMITY TO A WATERWAY HEIGHT ABOVE THE
FLOODPLAINS.

ADOBE BUILDINGS ARE VERY VULNERABLE WHEN BROUGHT

IN PROLONGED CONTACT WITH WATER, BE IT SEEPING
GROUNDWATER OR THE RISING NILE
 EGYPTIAN TOWN PLANNING
ELEVATIONS, KEPT ABOVE THE SLOWLY RISING
PLAINS.

WHEN OLD HOUSES CRUMBLED, NEW ONES WERE BUILT ON TOP OF

THE DEBRIS.

THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON UNTIL RECENT TIMES, WHEN THE YEARLY
INUNDATIONS WERE STOPPED BY THE ASWAN DAM.
 PLANNED CITY :- HOTEPSENUSRET

FOUNDED BY SENUSRET II IN THE FAYUM

INHABITED FOR ABOUT A CENTURY. THE OUTLAY OF THE

CITY WAS RECTANGULAR

AREA 350 X 400 sq m.

.
SURROUNDED BY BRICK WALL

DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS BY ANOTHER WALL.

DIFFERENT SOCIAL CLASSES DID NOT LIVE IN SEPARATE

CITY QUARTERS.

RICH RESIDENTIAL AREA, WHERE PALATIAL 60 ROOM

RESIDENCES WERE FIFTY TIMES AS BIG AS THE
DWELLINGS IN THE POORER HALF OF THE CITY.
PLANNED CITY :- HOTEPSENUSRET
 PLANNED CITY :- HOTEPSENUSRET

THIS PART HAD ALSO A WIDE STREET

LEADING TO THE PALACE.

THE STREETS ALL OVER THE CITY WERE

STRAIGHT LINES.

THE MAIN STREET WAS NINE METRES .

STREETS IN RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS AS

NARROW AS 1 METRES.

STREETS HAD SHALLOW STONE

CHANNELS RUNNING DOWN THE MIDDLE
FOR DRAINAGE .
 PLANNED CITY :- HOTEPSENUSRET

DESPITE THE LOVE EGYPTIANS HAD,

THERE WAS NO SPACE LEFT FOR FOR
GARDENS.

THE WHOLE AREA WAS COVERED WITH

STREETS AND ONE-STOREYED MUD-BRICK
BUILDINGS.

HOTEPSENUSRET WAS VERY DIFFERENT

FROM AKHENATEN'S
 PLANNED CITY :- AKHETATEN
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES HAD TREES

INHABITANTS OFTEN HAD THEIR OWN

PRIVATE GARDEN PLOTS.

BOUNDARIES HAD EMPTY SPACE.

WAS ABANDONED AFTER GOVERNMENT

EDIFICES HAD BEEN ERECTED.

THESE FORMED THE TOWN CENTRE

THE RESIDENTIAL AREAS WERE NORTH-

EAST AND SOUTH-WEST OF THEM.
WORKMEN HAD TO LIVE IN CROWDED
FLATS OF 60 M, OR 100 M
 PLANNED CITY :- AKHETATEN
WHOLE SPACE INSIDE THE WALLS WAS
OCCUPIED BY HOUSES.

THE PARALLEL STREETS WERE ABOUT

TWO METRES WIDE

WHOLE SPACE INSIDE THE WALLS WAS

OCCUPIED BY HOUSES.

WORKERS' SETTLEMENT WAS WALLED

IN.

THE TEMPLES, THE PALACE AND THE

ROYAL RESIDENCES, THE BARRACKS, THE
OFFICES OF THE ADMINISTRATION, ETC
WERE NOT SURROUNDED BY ANY WALL
 PLANNED CITY :- AKHETATEN

THE EGYPTIANS RARELY PLANNED

FEW SPACES FREE FOR THE IMPORTANT
ROADS OF ACCESS,

SETTING TEMPLE DISTRICTS APART AND

ERECTING AN ADOBE WALL AROUND IT
ALL.

AKHETATEN WERE AT TIMES A JUMBLE OF

HOUSES,

PLOT OWNERS WERE NOT FREE TO DO

AS THEY LIKED.

THEY HAD TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THEIR

NEIGHBOURS' RIGHTS AND WISHES
 CITY QUARTERS

EGYPTIAN CITY DWELLERS HAD LITTLE CHOICE ABOUT ADDING FURTHER

STOREYS.

LAND SUITABLE FOR BUILDING

HAD TO BE ABOVE THE FLOODLEVEL OF THE NILE

REASONABLY CLOSE TO THE RIVER

MANY EGYPTIANS WERE FORCED TO LIVE IN THESE CROWDED

CONDITIONS.

AT AKHETATEN WHERE THERE WAS NO LACK OF SUITABLE LAND, SOME

PRIVATE HOMES WERE STILL BUILT IN THE SAME WARREN-LIKE FASHION.
 TEMPLE DISTRICTS

TEMPLE DISTRICTS WERE BETTER

PLANNED.

THE OUTLAY OF INDIVIDUAL TEMPLES

WAS BASICALLY SYMMETRICAL.

WALLS SURROUNDED THEM.

AT HOTEP-SENUSRET :-
A) THE BRICK WALL WAS ON THREE
SIDES OF THE TEMPLE
WAS 12 METRES THICK AND LINED WITH
LIMESTONE.
AVENUES LEADING THROUGH THE CITY
TO THE TEMPLE DISTRICT WERE WIDE,
SUITABLE FOR PROCESSIONS.
 TEMPLE DISTRICTS

THE TEMPLE COMPLEXES HAD EXTENSIVE

STORAGE SPACE

THE THICKNESS OF THE BRICK WALL LINED

WITH LIMESTONE HOTEP SENUSRET
(KAHUN) WAS ABOUT 12 METRES .

ITS HEIGHT MUST HAVE BEEN

CORRESPONDINGLY GREAT.

WHEN WALLS WERE BUILT COMPLETELY OF

STONE, THEIR THICKNESS COULD BE
REDUCED, BUT THEY WERE STILL QUITE
MASSIVE.
 TEMPLE DISTRICTS

TEMPLE DISTRICTS WERE BETTER PLANNED.

THE OUTLAY OF INDIVIDUAL TEMPLES WAS SYMMETRICAL.

WALLS SURROUNDED THEM.

AT HOTEP-SENUSRET THE BRICK WALL ON THREE SIDES OF THE

TEMPLE WAS 12 METRES THICK AND LINED WITH LIMESTONE.

AVENUES LEADING TO THE TEMPLE DISTRICT WERE WIDE.

 TEMPLE DISTRICTS

PAVED STREET FIVE METRES WIDE WAS DISCOVERED.

PAVEMENT OF STREETS WAS RESTRICTED TO THE TEMPLE

COMPLEXES

TEMPLES WERE SURROUNDED BY AN EMPTY SPACE,

OVER TIME HOUSES WERE BUILT RIGHT UP TO THE OUTER TEMPLE

WALLS.
HOUSES DECAYED AND WERE REBUILT MANY TIMES , RESULT THAT
THE GROUND LEVEL OF THE RESIDENTIAL AREA ROSE

THE TEMPLES WHICH, BEING BUILT OF STONE, WERE NOT

PERIODICALLY REBUILT, SEEMINGLY SANK INTO THE GROUND.
 Palaces
THE WHOLE COMPOUND WAS ENCLOSED AND SEPARATE FROM
THE REST OF THE CAPITAL,
ALBEIT CLOSE TO SUPPLIERS OF SERVICES, TEMPLES AND THE
SEAT OF THE ADMINISTRATION
 Workers' dwellings

THE HOUSES OF THE WORKMEN HAD TWO TO FOUR ROOMS

ON THE GROUND FLOOR (44 AND 60 M)

ACCESS TO THE FLAT ROOF, WHICH WAS USED AS LIVING

AND STORING SPACE.
THE HOUSES ABUTTING THE INNER WALL ON THE EASTERN
SIDE WERE BIGGER, HAVING UP TO SEVEN ROOMS.

SOME OF THE DWELLINGS HAD CONICAL GRANARIES ON

THE GROUND FLOOR. THE DOORWAYS WERE ARCHED

TRACES OF BRICK BARREL-VAULTING HAVE BEEN FOUND ON

SUPPORTING WALLS.

ROOFS WERE MADE OF WOODEN PLANKS SUPPORTED BY

BEAMS AND PLASTERED OVER WITH MUD.
Workers' dwellings
 The Great Houses

The Great Houses covered about 2700 m each and served as offices and
living quarters for the high officials in charge of the construction work and their
families. There were four almost identical houses and one differently built one
north of the street and another three with a completely different ground plan
south of it.
After the pyramid had been built and the officials had left, people began to
take over their houses, adapting them to their own needs by walling up
entrances and creating new walls and passages.
 The Great Houses
The layout of one of the northern Great
Houses
1 Main entrance
2 Doorkeeper's lodge
3 Offices, guest rooms
4 Pillared hall
5 Private quarters
6 The mandara, i.e. reception room for strangers
7 Open courtyard
8 Best hall, with columns and tank
9 Private rooms
10 Visitors' passage to the mandara
11 Women's hall
12 Women's quarters
13 Store rooms
 GREEK TOWN PLANNING

Introduction
Town-planning--the art of lying out towns with due care for the Health and
comfort of inhabitants, for industrial and commercial efficiency, and for
reasonable beauty of buildings--is an art of intermittent activity.

The peoples of ancient Greece shared a common language, religion, and

culture, yet they were separated into numerous independent political units.
These city-states, called poleis*, were political entities consisting of a city and
its surrounding territory.
Geographically,
Greece is surrounded on three sides by sea, which is the natural setting for
transportation, and trade.
Travel and communication between settlement areas were not easy. Greece had
many mountain ranges, and travel by land was difficult.
Only about one-fifth of the land is suitable for habitation and farming,
Thereby, pushing the inhabitants to form and live in groups, which developed a
deep sense of mutual responsibility, and the peoples deities of worship were the
natural phenomenon.
Much of Greece is peninsular.
Large irregular areas of land, including many islands, are surrounded and
separated by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. Communications and the
sharing of ideas improved as the land became more settled.

However, many self-governing communities were already firmly rooted, and as

their populations grew, so did competition between them. Some grew larger and
more powerful at the expense of others; these came to dominate greater areas of
land and the smaller communities within them.
 The more powerful centers developed into independent poleis. As a political unit,
the polis comprised not just the city itself but the surrounding territory as well,
including small towns and villages.
The countryside was dotted with farms, which provided goods primarily for the
rural and city dwellers of its own polis, but also for trade with other poleis. The
Greeks made no legal distinction between the country-dweller and the urbanite. All
belonged to the polis.
A Brief Visit to an Ancient Greek Town

In Classical* times, a visitor approaching a Greek town, probably by mule, might

first recognize the town's acropolis* from afar.
Fortified by massive stonewalls; the acropolis of a town may also be home to the
most important temples for the town's favorite Olympian deity. (The most famous
acropolis is the one in Athens, on which stands the well-known temple of Athena
called the Parthenon.) Impressive features in the natural landscape -- hilltops,
caves, and freshwater springs-- hold special meaning for the ancient Greeks, and
such places are often selected for building sacred precincts.
The town itself may be loosely surrounded by well-built walls that connect to
those of the acropolis on the heights above. The visitor will enter the town gate
and follow a main road directly to the bustling town center, the agora.
The agora* is the most essential ingredient of an ancient Greek town. "Agora it
is the place where nearly all aspects of public life are carried out -- the supreme
meeting place and heart of a polis. Here people came to shop, do business,
worship, or simply socialize.
Strolling through the agora, our visitor will certainly spot the bouleterion*, the
building where the town council meets.
At least one stoa* will be encountered, and probably more: these long hall-like
buildings with open colonnades on one side are the most common type of
building in an agora. They offer shelter from rain and sun, and, in addition to
being meeting places, house shops, market-stalls, offices, and storerooms.
Religious shrines can be found anywhere and everywhere in a Greek town, and
temples, elegant buildings with their porches and surrounding colonnades, are a
common sight especially in the agora.
A fountain-house will be sought out on a hot day because shade trees have been
planted along the thoroughfares. Everywhere there are statues of heroes, gods,
and ordinary (but important) people, to catch the eye and inspire reflection.
Gymnasium* and the stadium*, which are located wherever the terrain is
suitable, often at the outskirts of town. There the young men of the town
received their education both in intellectual matters and in athletics.
An open theater also will be found where the landscape is suitable. The best spot
is a natural hollow for the central stage, enclosed by slopes where spectator
seating can be arranged. Dramatic performances are seen here for
entertainment, but its size may also make the theater the preferred spot for larger
town gatherings
 CITY PLANNING

Mr.Hippocampus Miletves, the first known town planner who was born about 480
B.C. has introduced the principle of straight and wide streets and made
provisions for the proper grouping of dwellings, and also paid special attention to
the combination of different parts of a town in a harmonious whole, all of it
centered round the market place.

The towns were planned in square form.

In the center the rectangular acropolis (church or temple) of
monumental nature was placed.
Two main roads were found the square and secondary
intersecting roads at the middle and diagonally.
This planning may be closely allied to the picturesque
grouping of public buildings where the site was encumbered by
streets, for once in a group of building the symmetry on either
side of a center line is abandoned, the principle of the balance
succeeds.
The individual unit, the temple was completely symmetrical in itself.
Beyond this Greek would appear to have regarded regular as mechanical.
Athenian acropolis is the best example of this studied picturesque ness of
grouping, which cannot be explained on religious ground.

DWELLING
Privacy was prominent in the dwellings or houses
and the social contacts and all business were done
outside the home, mostly in agora (a common space
having the provision of open and covered space).
Sometimes small merchants had their shops
adjacent to their houses.
Later on the housing conditions improved.
Houses were enclosed about a central hearth; a hole
in the roof allowed the smoke to escape and it also
permitted the collection of rainwater in cistern.
The sanitation improved on the pavement and on
streets, and in reservoirs but there was no distribution
system
 Due to climate, care was taken in orientation of the building so that the maximum
amount of sunshine could enter the dwelling in winter and the sunrays could be cut
out in the summer to get a cooling effect.
The principal rooms were faced south, opening upon private courtyards.
A colonnade projected from the rooms to shelter them from the high summer sun.
PUBLIC SPACE
The agora or the market place was the center of
business and political life and about it were lined the
shops and market both.
The agora was usually located in the approximate
center of the town plan with the major east-west and
north-south streets leading to it.
The open space enclosed by the agora occupied
about 5 percent of the city area, the dimensions being
approximately one fifth of the width and breadth of the
town itself.
The plan of the agora was geometrical in form.
Colonnaded porticoes sheltering the buildings about the square surrounded square
or rectangular open spaces.
The plan was arranged to avoid interference between the movement of people
across the open space and those who assembled for trade and business in the
market.
Streets were generally terminated at the agora rather than crossing it, the open
space being reserved primarily for pedestrians and circulation