Ancient Egyptians established the one of most unique and highly advanced societies in ancient world. Yet like all ancient societies, everything the Egyptians created and constructed reflected the conditions and constrains imposed by the environment they inhabited.  In this sense, the form, size, and configuration of Egyptian architecture was not simply a product of the available tools and materials.  It also reflected the manner in which ancient Egyptians adapted to their own physical geography. In doing so they created tools and materials that are not unlike those we use today.

Situated along the river Nile, ancient Egyptian society first emerged from a cluster of small farming villages circa 3100 B.C.E. [Strickland, 2001]The river was the living source of their existence. Each year it would flood, creating a strip of fertile land suitable for agriculture.  The flooding also deposited clay and sediment, which Egyptians used to make pottery and mud bricks for construction.  Equally important the Nile provided a natural corridor for trade, as well as for transporting food, goods, and building materials. This allowed Egyptians to import cedar wood and mine gold from remote regions, thus expanding the sources of available materials and, consequently, contributing to the development of Egyptian design and construction techniques. [Kostof, 1995]

Ancient Egyptian Technology

These geographic and economic factors also contributed to the development of Egyptian technology.  Chief among them was the need to accurately survey and allocate the limited amount of arable land after the Nile flooded each year.  This basic need helped to foster important innovations in math and geometry, including the Straight Angle, the Gold Section, and conceptualization of geometric shapes. As the Greek historian Herodotus observed:

““…Egypt was cut up: and they said that this king distributed the land to all the Egyptians, giving an equal square portion to each man, and from this he made his revenue, having appointed them to pay a certain rent every year: and if the river should take away anything from any man’s portion, he would come to the king and declare that which had happened, and the king used to send men to examine and to find out by measurement how much less the piece of land had become, in order that for the future the man might pay less, in proportion to the rent appointed: and I think that thus the art of geometry was found out””
Herodotus, 500 B.C.E.

Social and cultural factors also shaped the development of ancient Egyptian architecture.  Influenced by an emphasis on  order, religious orthopraxy, and the society’s innate conservatism Egyptian architects/master-builders  followed an established set of customary principals that dictated the shape and design of architectural objects. These principles included the preference for straight lines and angles, as well as the predominance of pure geometric forms. [Strickland, 2001] This cultural emphasis on order and continuity helps explain why these and other basic design elements appear in many architectural objects from the ancient Egyptian period. Architectural monuments that Ancient Egypt are famously known for large-scale stone building like pyramids and temples. Egyptians also invented columns, capital, cornice, pylon and obelisk and left the examples of fine craftsmanship such as artistic decorations carved on the walls and columns, and were first to perfect masonry. [Lukas, 1948]

The physical environment played an integral role in development of tools and materials as well. One widely used construction material were mud-bricks composed of Nile clay and sand.  Chopped straw was sometimes added to the mixture in order to prevent cracking. Mud-brick was originally used in the construction of a flattop rectangular tomb known as a mastaba. [Strickland, 2001] It was also used to construct housing for the Egyptian peasantry.  This pattern of usage reflected the low cost and relative availability of the underlying materials.

Egyptians used stone in place of mud-bricks when construction requirements called for more stable and durable structures. Stone quickly became the ancient Egyptians’ primary building material, thanks to its strength, relative availability, and the development of copper masonry tools. In addition to greater stability, stone buildings also provided a great protection from sun, rain and wind.

Stone was generally brought from quarries in the Mountains and transported via the Nile.[1] Special tools were used to work the stone after it was quarried. This was evident from markings left on walls and columns.  Egyptians used stone tools for pounding and rubbing, and copper bladed for sawing.  Drilling was done with tubular drills tipped with copper or stone points. Construction materials varied.  Although Granite and limestone were commonplace, alabaster, basalt and quartzite were also used.[2] Egyptians developed mortar and plaster using clay from the riverbed and gypsum.  Wood was also used in buildings: mainly for doors, but occasionally for roofs and columns as well. [Lukas, 1948]

Egyptians also developed building practices and technologies that were greatly influenced by their use of stone. Chief among them was the invention of construction tools to assist workers in moving, lifting, and placing the stones.  This combination or materials, tools, and techniques lay the technological foundations for building large architectural objects like pyramids and temples.

A similar nexus between materials, tools, and technique is evident in contemporary building practices.  Like the ancient Egyptians, modern architecture emphasizes the use of mathematics, the Golden Section and, frequently, an emphasis on pure geometric shapes.  Similar materials are also used: namely, stone, wood, plaster, and mortar.  The primary difference is the manner in which these materials are employed, with stone often serving a more decorative than structural function in contemporary buildings.

Most notable, however, is the contrast between the philosophies that define ancient Egyptian and contemporary building practices. Ancient Egyptians sought order and continuity through the use of pure forms.  Contemporary practices, by comparison, often seek to break free of the established order, or else to strike a balance between conventional and innovative elements.  Equally significant in the manner in which our own social and political structures shape contemporary architectural forms.  Rather than building thick-walled, windowless tombs and temples for a very small portion of the population, contemporary design tends to emphasize light construction, large, transparent windows, and shared, open spaces.  This contrast carries an important lesson.  Architecture is not simply a reflection of the tools and materials, or even a product result of the physical geography.  In many respects architecture also embodies the values, structures, and aspirations, structure of the society from which it is derived.

The one intriguing aspect of Egyptian Architecture that brings it far above the  contemporary building practices is the magnificent art, attention to details, finest masonry that too often lack our contemporary buildings.

Bibliography

Carol Strickland, Ph.D. The Annotated Arch. Acrash Course in the History of Architecture. Kansas City: Andrew McMeel Publishing, 2001.

Halicarnassus, Herodotus of. The Histories of Herodotus: An Account of Egypt. Internet: evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com, 500 B.C.E.

Kostof, Spiro. A History of Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Lucas, A. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries. London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1948.