Egyptian House Design Ideas

When you come on holiday to Egypt and see the sites at Luxor and Cairo, tombs, temples like the Giza pyramids. It almost seems that from the dawn of Egyptian civilisation until the end the Ancient Egyptians were obsessed with death and burial. This is not actually the truth, when you look at scenes of daily life they are a very happy LIFE obsessed culture. The tombs of the nobles at Sakkara show lively and fun loving scenes. However the effort and time put into burial are considerable. Many factors seem to have driven the development of the funeral architecture but it is hard to identify these at times because the Ancient Egyptian did not tell us, so we have to deduce the reasons from the evidence left to us.

Trace the evolution of funerary architecture from the predynastic pit grave through the development of the mastaba tomb, to the pyramid complexes of the 4th Dynasty. There appear to be three influences driving funerary architecture: Religious belief, Power, wealth and status, Tomb robbery. These influences can be in conflict and a compromise has to be made. There are also many regional differences. The various types of burial are as follows:-
- Pit Graves. The Upper Egyptian initially buried everyone in shallow pit graves, either round or oval. These were situated in the desert away from the cultivation. The body was contracted in a foetal position and provided with grave goods. Some of the artifacts buried represent high art of its time and considerable sacrifice of resources. Also the graves of Upper and Lower Egypt are different. We do not have very much evidence about Lower Egyptian graves but those we do have show burial within the community and fewer grave goods. This might indicate a more family oriented and less status driven society.
- Mastabas. In shape looking like the mud brick bench outside traditional Egyptian homes, these tombs were given the Arabic name mastaba. The superstructure became more complex. Starting with a solid mound, it developed into a labyrinth of rooms and passage, with sizes up to 5 meters and large numbers of rooms. The outside was a niched wall of mud brick, the so called palace facade, which was in plan a series of in and out rectangles or niches. This distinctive style can be seen at the same period in the serak. The elite tomb has now become the house for eternity and probably closely resembles an ordinary house and in the king's case, his palace with a large enclosure wall.
- Pyramid Complexes. Many of the previous monuments have stone elements but Djoser was the first person to use it so extensively. His complex at Sakkara shows widespread use of stone but the styles and designs are all copying organic structures into stone. There was not the confidence to come up with new ideas in the new material. You can see doors half open, ribbons, reeds, etc all faithfully reproduced in stone. Even the pillars are attached. But his compound is a more complex development from preceding pharaohs.
- obelisks. An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. These were originally called "tekhenu" by the builders, the Ancient Egyptians. The Greeks who saw them used the Greek 'obeliskos' to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and then English. Ancient obelisks were often monolithic (that is, built with a single stone), whereas most modern obelisks are made of several stones and can have interior spaces.

Internally the engineering was stunning, the technology used to cope with the stresses of the structure show enormous architectural developments. Bring Egyptian architecture into your house design now! Download this application and you will find other ideas for your Egyptian house design.
Egyptian House Design Ideas
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