When people hear of Egypt they most likely think of pyramids, but that is not all Egypt has to offer. Pyramids were just one kind of building of the many in Egypt; the other kinds of buildings include temples, chapels, other tombs, and massive walls. There are about eighty pyramids known today from ancient Egypt. The great monuments constructed throughout Egypt required the hands of master architects with strong suits in organization and art that very few cultures could achieve back then. The ancient Egyptians built pyramids as tombs for the pharaohs and their queens. The pharaohs were buried in pyramids of many different shapes and sizes from before the beginning of the old kingdom to the end of the middle kingdom. The ancient buildings in Egypt are some of the most complex pieces of history that do not get enough credit for their unique art forms.
Building Structure
The tombs and homes were built of nothing more than mud brick that required a special drying technique in the sun. Before brick making was discovered, homes were built mainly out of reeds (a straw-like plant) and were covered with thick coats of mud for walls. Early buildings were circularly shaped before bricks were used but once bricks were discovered the structures became more rectangular. Small communities full of locals realized they needed protection from wild animals and strangers so they decided to all join together to form one big community and build a wall around the city.
As the architecture advanced, so did the windows and doors (which were mainly all lined by wooden frames). Wood back then was used more than ever but compared to the amount of bricks used now, wood could not be considered a large-scale building material because not enough was used. Over time, the simple oval-shaped, brick homes upgraded to the rectangular houses with domed roofs, gardens, and some even had courtyards. Once mud brick work was discovered, it was used to build early tombs that were detailed with unique and complex designs. As oblong tombs (mastabas) were being made from mud brick, people were working hard to figure out how to make stone temples to represent and honor their gods. Stone monuments and temples started appearing in Egypt during the Second Dynasty.
Art Forms
Architecture has changed immensely since the First Dynasty. Simple structures used to be made of wood, reeds, and mud, but with time, the structured evolved to larger, more complicated buildings which were made of brick and stone. The building techniques from the first dynasty of building structures with wood had a strong influence on the buildings constructed of brick and stone. To give rooms Egyptian character, mat and reed textures are imitated on many stone walls. Ancient Egyptian art is more than an art; it is a symbol of cultural life, nature, and religion. Most Egyptian art is formed to represent life from when you are created to the afterlife. Most Egyptians live their life and create things that represent themselves in the form of a sculpture or a painting.
Egyptian art was a very important part of their lives during the First Dynasty. All their forms of art were ordered by people of authority for temples or tombs to be built. Inside of the temples, there were wall paintings and statues of gods to serve for their spiritual beliefs. Having colorful paintings, which used to be on the walls of tombs of Pharaoh and the royal family, wealthy officials and nobles, gave the living the idea of having eternal life in of the afterlife. Egyptians prayed to the sculptures because they believe that the good spirits would help the deceased person come back in the next life. Most homes have their walls covered in paintings and royal palaces have beautifully painted walls along with the floors and ceilings.
Egypt is known best for its pyramids. Pyramids were built by cutting and building gigantic blocks of stone and putting them together, this task was not for the average man to complete and was not easy in any aspect. Along the lines of building them being difficult, it took thousands of people to complete these monuments, in fact, many people died over the course of building the pyramids because of the hard labor and the scorching hot days. During the first dynasty, Egyptians decided the most suitable place for burial was the desert because of its extremely dry ecosystem, so that’s where the location of the pyramids came into play. The pyramids were built by starting from the bottom and working their way up until their very last brick. The builders used ladders that went all the way around the pyramid until it reached the top. The ladders used had to be able to hold thousands of pounds of blocks and the builders and would be torn down once the pyramid was complete.
Another form of art in the Egyptian culture was hieroglyphs. Egyptian Hieroglyphs was the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt. It combined different writing elements and had over 1,000 characters. This art was inscribed into the walls of pyramids and on many other great Egyptian monuments. Most people could not write this way so they had people, scripts, write in this form because only they understood and knew how to write the language.
Tombs and Statues
Tombs contained as many statues, carvings or paintings as the owner could afford because they believed the more items they had, the better after-life they would have. To the Egyptians, the needs of the dead were the same to those of the living, they both needed to be taken care of. The typical objects that were left in tombs included food, wine, jewelry, toys, cosmetics, containers that held oil and fat, sacrificed bulls, gold masks that were made to last for centuries, and living-room furniture to "make the afterlife more comfortable." The images that were painted of humans and gods or animals and plants all had religious meaning. Wealthy or royal peoples were buried in tombs that were decorated with paintings from their lives and hieroglyphics that described their family, achievements, and even battle scenes. For the people who weren’t considered royalty, the images in the tombs were believed to be places of contact between the living and the dead. Tombs typically contained images of the deceased performing tasks from everyday life or doing some special achievement, images of the deceased making sacrifices to the Gods, images of cobras (they believed that they kept evil spirits from entering the tomb and had the power to protect the deceased). Most of the tombs had ceilings that were painted with a dark blue sky with five golden stars. There were often images of people who could carry out duties in the afterlife, for example; farmers, cooks, or musicians. Egyptian art could only develop as religious ideas evolved, these ideas were modified because of changes in the environment (Aldred 5).
The early age tombs, called mastabas, were usually made of mud and stone and were pyramid shaped. The tombs had false doors (where the living could interact with the dead) and real doors which were sealed with mud. Tombs were sealed after the funeral but sometimes there were chapels built above them where people could come and pay their respects and priests could conduct rituals. A ritual that the priests preformed was “delivering” meals to the dead by symbolically offering the food to images of the deceased (since the food was not actually consumed by the dead, the priest or their families would eat the meals).
Statues of the deceased were placed in the tombs next to the mummy because the statues were known to be places where gods or humans that passed away could attach themselves to and dwell. Some men brought along carved stone which were incredibly lifelike; the eyes of the statues were quartz crystal. The sculptures were made of stone because that it meant they could last forever. Some of the tombs contained "reserve heads" that were plaster casts of the mummified head. Ushabti, small statues of ordinary people, were also included with the dead to serve the labors of the gods.
The Pyramids
The oldest pyramid, the Step-Pyramids, was constructed thanks to King Djoser and Imhotep. King Djoser was the second king of the third dynasty and was the first king to hire an architect to create a pyramid (Time-Life Books, 74). Imhotep was known for inventing the calendar as well as the father of mathematics, medicine, and architecture (White, 40). He had a great idea of stacking mastabas (or mud bricks) until they reached six tiers, a total of 60 meters high (Casson, 118). A special feature was that limestone was mixed in with the mastabas which made the bricks shimmer and shine in the sun. The most unique feature of the pyramid was its enormous underground shafts and burial room which was lined with pink granite, which had never been done before (White, 41). Imhotep surrounded the pyramid with a plethora of courtyards and temples which were then surrounded by a mile-long protective wall (Time-Life Books, 74).
Another pyramid was Khufu’s Great Pyramid or the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is the largest pyramid ever built. It stands forty stories high and its base is about the size of eight football fields which is approximately 2,880 feet long and 1,280 feet wide. The pyramid took about 2,300,000 stone blocks to complete and was also coated with a polished stone to add a shine. Buried deep inside the pyramid are the royal tombs of the king and the queen. In order to actually get to the tombs, you have to go through long, narrow shafts which are beautifully lined with granite all the way to the chambers (Time-Life Books, 75).
The ancient buildings in Egypt are some of the most complex pieces of history that do not get enough credit for their unique art forms. People often think that Egypt is only known for having their pyramids, but there are so many other unique structures. The other structures are temples, chapels, tombs, and massive walls. The great monuments constructed throughout Egypt required the hands of master architects with strong suits in organization and art that very few cultures could achieve back then. Most of the ancient structures were made to please the pharaohs and their queens. To make sure the pharaohs were still honored even after they died, they were buried in pyramids of many different shapes and sizes from before the beginning of the old kingdom to the end of the middle kingdom.