College of Environmental Design
Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
Architecture 170 - Fall 1996 - Dell Upton - September 5
I. The Land. Egyptian architecture shaped by Egypt's peculiar topography: Upper and Lower Egypt. Important places to be mentioned: Memphis, Thebes, Saqqara. The river Nile: Delta, cataracts. Ancient name for Egypt: Kemet/The Black; the desert is Deshret/The Red).
II. Periods of Egyptian History. Predynastic period; Old Kingdom [Dynasties I-VI, 3100-2280 BCE]; Middle Kingdom [Dynasties XI-XII, 2131-1875 BCE]; New Kingdom [Dynasties XVIII-XX, 1580-1085 BCE]. Upper and Lower Egypt unified ca. 3100-3000 BCE by a pharaoh (king) called Menes or Narmer. This is beginning of dynastic Egypt.
III. The Tomb and Egyptian Ideas of Death. Death as a continuation of life: eternal work in the Field of Reeds (Elysian Fields). The tomb as a house for the spirit. The Ka and the Ba. Predynastic burials in the sand.
(1) The mastaba tomb: a flat-roofed rectangular structure containing or built over burial space. Note: offering room, burial chamber, serdab, ka statue. Cumulative character of Egyptian culture: ideas and architectural forms added to older ones, rather than replacing them.
Interlude 1: The Nile. Dependence on annual floods for layer of fertile black soil that makes agriculture possible. The interchangable nature of the abstract and the concrete in ancient Egyptian culture: religious ideas based on the facts of everyday life. (Diagrams: Measurements & proportions of human based grid system).
(2) Royal pyramids. Stepped Pyramid and Mortuary Complex of Zoser, Saqqara, Dynasty III [ca. 2780-2680 BCE], architect Imhotep. (Zoser Tomb Complex: Stepped Pyramid; Complex, model; Complex, plan; Royal tomb). Note: stepped pyramid, mortuary temple, serdab with statue, walled enclosure, northern and southern shrines with lotus and papyrus columns; heb-sed court with dummy chapels, south mastaba. Beginnings of monumental stone architecture in Egypt.
Interlude 2: Directions. Directional sense imparted by south-north course of the Nile and east-west course of sun.
Dynasty IV pyramid complexes at Giza, all ca. 2570-2500 BCE. Pyramid Complex of Khufu (Cheops): note mastabas, mortuary temple, three interior chambers (including King's & Queen's chambers) and Grand Gallery, boat pits. (Cheops pyramid: Section; King's chamber). The pyramid shape: devotion to the sun god Re/Ra; the celestial barge; the benben. Pyramid Complex of Khaefre (Chephren): note (temple) and valley temple, post-and-lintel construction, causeway, sphinx. (Pyramid interior dynamics). Preparation for burial; canopic jars. The ceremony of Opening the Mouth. Pyramid Complex of Menkaure (Mycerinus): note subsidiary pyramids.