A short history of architecture

The history of Egypt is divided into five periods, from the earliest ages down to its conquest by the Romans at the beginning of the Christian era. The first period comprises the first fourteen dynasties of ancient kings, among whom the most important are: Menes, founder of Memphis, Shoofoo or Cheops, Shafra or Chephren, and Mycerinus, builders of the pyramids of Gizeh, and the two Theban monarchs, Osirtasen I. and Amenemha III., by whom the tombs at Beni Hassan, the Labyrinth and Lake Moeris were constructed. According to Bunsen these fourteen dynasties date from 3623 to 2547 B.C.

The second period is marked by the invasion of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, of whom there were three dynasties. They remained in power until 1625 B.C. and were a warlike and destructive race, leaving no permanent traces of their occupation.

The third period is the most brilliant in Egyptian history, extending from 1625 to 525 B.C., and comprising nine dynasties of great conquerors and builders. The best known of these are: Amosis, Thothmes III., Sethi I., Rameses II. (the Great), called also Sesostris, and Rameses III. Under these kings the great temples of Luxor, Abydus, and Karnak were erected and the arts were assiduously cultivated.

The Persians under Cambyses occupied the country in the year 525 B.C. They were expelled a century later, but were again victorious in 340 B.C., and remained in possession until the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332. This fourth period was as unproductive in works of art as had been that of the Hyksos dominion.

After Alexander, the Ptolemys ruled until the close of the first century before Christ. Their government promoted the cultivation of the arts and industries and formed the fifth and last period in the history of ancient Egypt as an independent state.

Of these five epochs there are, therefore, only three—namely, the first, third, and fifth—during which architecture flourished, and these three in reality form but one long period in the history of an art which remained almost unaltered, scarcely either improving or receding, from the remotest times to its last day.

Our knowledge of ancient Egypt has been chiefly derived from bass-reliefs, mural paintings and hieroglyphics. The latter were unintelligible until the discovery of the Rosetta stone by the French consul Champollion, in 1798. This was part of a stone tablet bearing three inscriptions, one in hieroglyphics, one in the Cursive letters used by the lower classes, and the third in Greek. By means of this the old alphabet was reconstructed and all the ancient inscriptions deciphered.

TOMBS.

The most important monuments of the first period are the pyramids, the oldest of which were built between three and four thousand years before Christ.

There remain about a hundred of these in the vicinity of the ancient city of Memphis, extending over a considerable extent of country, and others are found in Thebes and at Meroë in Ethiopia. There have been many theories advanced upon the subject of their origin and purpose, and many arguments set forth seeking to prove that they were observatories, temples, granaries, meteorological monuments, or tombs. Nearly all modern authorities agree upon the last as the most probable solution of the problem, not only from the sarcophagi and mummies found within many of them, and from inscriptions relating events in the lives of important personages which adorn the walls of some of their inner chambers, but from the fact that these buildings are never found beyond the confines of cemeteries.

In erecting these monuments, the Egyptians usually selected a site upon a rocky plateau, on which a space equal to the superficial area required for the base was made level, a mound being left in the centre which was bonded in with the masonry. Below this platform a sepulchral chamber and connecting passage were hollowed in the rock. The pyramid was built over this chamber and contained one or more additional apartments, reached from the outside by narrow and inclined corridors. It was generally constructed with blocks of limestone, in successive steps receding at an angle varying from forty-five to seventy degrees. The outside was afterward cased with slabs of polished syenite, upon which inscriptions were engraved or painted. The interior chambers and corridors were likewise lined with polished granite, sometimes so mathematically jointed that a needle could not be pushed between the stones. Ceilings were formed by inclined slabs resting against each other or the walls were corbelled inward until they met.

The entrances to the passages were invariably closed and concealed, and portcullises of heavy granite blocks, sliding in grooves, were placed at intervals along the corridors, the more effectually to preserve the sepulchre from violation. Nearly all have, nevertheless, been entered and rifled, so that but little is left to aid the archæologist in his researches. Fragmentary inscriptions and local observations compared with the accounts given by Greek and Latin authors have, however, resulted in the piecing together of what may be presumed to be an accurate history of the pyramid-builders.

The three largest pyramids are situated at Gizeh, a small village near Cairo, and are respectively those of Cheops, known also as Suphis or Shoofoo, Chephren or Shafra, and Mycerinus.

The following table shows the dimensions given by two of the best authorities:

All of these are oriented and the entrances are all on the North sides. This is a rule applicable to all the pyramids except that of Sakkarah, which is placed without reference to the points of the compass and was probably erected at a much later date.

The first or Great Pyramid contains one subterranean chamber, reached by a passage some three hundred feet long, and two other apartments above the level of the ground, the one above the other, called the King’s and Queen’s sepulchres. The entrance to the connecting corridors is placed 45 feet above the ground and 23 feet away from the true centre in order to deceive explorers. The Queen’s Chamber is about 18 feet square by 20 feet in height, and is placed directly under the apex of the pyramid. It is 67 feet above the ground, and 71 feet below the King’s Chamber. The passage leading to the latter is 28 feet high, formed by corbelled walls. This chamber is roofed by a flat ceiling and measures 34 feet in length by 17 in breadth, and is 19 feet high. The walls and ceiling are built of finely polished granite, and the apartment contains a sarcophagus of the same material. The weight of the superincumbent masonry is relieved by five other compartments placed over the chamber, four of which are covered by flat slabs, and the fifth by inclined stones resting against each other. It was in this highest compartment that some hieroglyphics scrawled in red ochre on the walls were discovered, by means of which the name Shoofoo became known. Herodotus says that one hundred thousand men were employed during twenty years in building the Great Pyramid, after they had devoted ten years, previous to its erection, to the construction of a causeway to the Nile, over which the stone was carried, which had been brought down the river from the Arabian hills.

Diodorus asserts that the number of workmen employed was upward of three hundred and sixty thousand.

The second pyramid contains two chambers, the most important of which is on the ground level, partly sunk in the rock. Its dimensions are 46 feet long by 16 in width, and 22 feet high. Within it a granite sarcophagus was found, containing the bones of an ox. This discovery gave rise to much speculation, as to whether the pyramids were not originally intended for the sepulchres of the animal deities worshipped by the Egyptians, the bull Apis in particular. The third pyramid was covered by a casing of polished red granite, formed of blocks with bevelled edges. There are several chambers inside, one of which contained a mummy and case, now transferred to the British Museum.

Near the pyramid of Cheops, on the same plateau, is the Sphinx. This great statue, with a human head and the body of a lion, is carved in the natural rock, deficiencies being made up by added masonry. Its dimensions are colossal, the body being 140 feet long, and the face 30 feet high by 14 feet in breadth. This mysterious creation was intended as the representation of a god, and as such had sacrifices offered before it, as the altars and temples erected beneath it attest. From inscriptions upon a stone found near by, it is known that the Sphinx was called Hor-em-khoo, “The Sun in his Resting-place.” The head was originally surmounted by a royal helmet, the face had a beard, fragments of which have been unearthed, and it is otherwise badly mutilated. This fanciful creature has doubtless much affinity with the winged bulls and lions of the Assyrian epoch.

The Egyptians also buried their dead in smaller tombs, in subterranean vaults, and in catacombs excavated in the rock of mountainous regions. A great number of these smaller tombs were built in the vicinity of ancient Memphis and are now commonly called “mastabahs.” In arrangement they were nearly all similar, the sepulchre consisting of three parts: a temple overground, a pit or well, and a subterranean chamber. The temple was in the shape of a frustum of a pyramid, the walls inclining inward at an angle of seventy degrees. It contained one or several apartments, used as places of assembly for the relatives and friends of the deceased, who came at stated intervals to hold services and to bring offerings of a suitable character. A list of these occasions was placed over the entrance, and on a second tablet or stella, inside, the name, titles, and virtues of the dead were recorded. The walls were brilliantly painted, domestic and religious scenes being the usual subjects depicted. The well-opening was usually concealed and filled with masonry. Its sides were formed of slabs of granite down to rock level and then excavated in the rock, sometimes thirty or forty yards below the surface. From the bottom of the pit a doorway, usually walled up, opened into a chamber containing a stone sarcophagus, in which the mummy was placed.

The finest excavated grottos are found at Beni Hassan and in the neighborhood of Thebes. Those at Beni Hassan follow the type of the “mastabah,” having the assembly hall, the well, and the chamber beneath, all being hollowed out of the rock. The sides are decorated with columns, architraves, and cornices, in imitation of constructive architecture, and the ceilings are cut out to represent vaults, the uncarved surfaces being adorned with paintings and hieroglyphics. The columns are especially interesting, as having evidently furnished the Greeks with the model for their Doric temples, and the order has in consequence been called the proto-doric. They have a diameter of five feet and are sixteen feet high; the shaft has sixteen sides with flutings and is surmounted by a tile or abacus. Besides these, there are other columns with capitals in the form of a lotus or papyrus bud, which are more commonly found in Egyptian temples.

The tombs of the kings at Thebes are arranged on a different principle; they consist of long sloping corridors opening into chambers and halls, and penetrating in a continuous line into the mountain rock. There are several groups, the most important of which is situated in the valley of Biban-el-Molook, or the “Gates of the Kings.” The tomb of Sethi I., the father of Rameses II., discovered by the explorer Belzoni in the earlier part of the century, is the finest example, the sculpture and paintings which it contains being very remarkable for their execution and of great historical interest, as they illustrate very completely the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians. Every effort had evidently been made to conceal the tomb, for not only was the entrance closed and covered with loose rock, but the first chamber, reached by a succession of passages and steep staircases, had been walled up and the four sides painted, so as to have the appearance of being the limit of the extent of the tomb. The hollow sound, caused by hammering on the walls at one point, led the explorer to continue his efforts, which were rewarded by the discovery of several more halls and chambers, terminating in a great vaulted chamber, thirty feet long, containing an alabaster sarcophagus. It has been conjectured that many of these excavated grottos were occupied as residences by the kings and great personages of the empire during their lifetime, and converted into sepulchres after death. The custom of relatives meeting at intervals in an assembly hall connected with the tomb does not seem to have prevailed here as at Memphis, but it is not improbable that the great Theban temples were used, if indeed they were not erected for this purpose.

The great mass of the people were not honoured by such magnificent tombs, but were buried in subterranean vaults in the necropolis (Greek, “city of the dead”) attached to each great town. The largest are those of Saïs, Sakkarah near Memphis, Thebes, and Abydus. These underground galleries were reached by deep wells, and often contained several stories of small chambers in which the embalmed bodies were placed, together with vases, statuettes, and other votive offerings. There were also cemeteries in which the animals worshipped by the Egyptians were buried, containing thousands of embalmed birds and reptiles, particularly the ibis and crocodile. The Apis mausoleum at Sakkarah, where the sacred bulls were interred, is one of the most important, the chambers and galleries being excavated in the rock and covering an immense area. The mausoleum was connected with the Serapeum, a temple above ground, where the living bull was worshipped as a deity.

TEMPLES.

There are two classes of Egyptian temples—those hollowed out of the mountain rock, commonly called speos, and those built upon the open plain and distinguished by the term “hypæthral” (Greek, “under air”). The most important of the latter are the temples of Sethi I., at Abydus; Amun re, at Kooneh; the great and small temples of Medeenet Haboo, erected by Rameses III. and Thothmes II.; the Rameseum or Memnonium, of Rameses II.; Luxor and Karnak, at Thebes; and the temples of Denderah, Edfou, and Philæ, built by the Ptolemys. All of these are similar in general plan, consisting of a greater or less number of courts, halls, and sanctuaries, which in each case are placed “en suite,” that is, one opening into the other in a continuous line, the larger apartments being in about the centre of this line and gradually diminishing in size, the last chamber being the smallest. As the main characteristics of the largest temples apply in a modified form to the smallest, a description of a complete temple would seem to be the best way of explaining the usual arrangements.

A wall of crude brick usually enclosed the whole structure, which was surrounded by a sacred grove, or temenos. This wall was entered by an outer gate, or pylon, built in the shape of a frustum of a pyramid, and surmounted by a coved cornice, the doorway having perpendicular or slanting jambs. From this an avenue, or dromos, bordered with sphinxes with human or rams’ heads, led up to the propylæa, or towers. The latter resembled the outer pylons, but were on a larger scale, containing staircases leading to upper terraces. They were spaced a short distance apart to admit of a passage between them, which was entered through a second gateway similar to the first. The sides of these buildings were usually elaborately painted, and rings were inserted in the masonry to hold the poles upon which the royal banners were hoisted. This second entrance was often flanked by two obelisks—long tapering monoliths with pyramidal summits, covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions recounting the dedication of the temple by the king to his favorite divinity. These obelisks were sometimes ninety feet high, and mounted upon square blocks. They were not always of equal size, probably owing to the difficulty of obtaining single stones of such enormous length. It is of interest to note that their sides were made slightly convex in order to prevent their appearing concave, which would be the effect had they been left quite flat. A second set of towers, or propylæa, with staircases, came next, with a court or area intervening. On each side of this court a colonnade was generally placed; and sometimes before the entrance to the towers two colossal statues of the king, represented seated, with his hands resting upon his knees in the conventional attitude of repose. The most famous are those known as the Colossi of Memnon, which stand on the plain of Thebes. They were probably in the court of the temple of Amunoph III., of which scarcely any vestige now remains. They are fifty feet high, mounted upon pedestals. One of them is called the Vocal Memnon, as, in ancient times, it gave forth sounds at the break of day—a phenomenon more easily explained as a trick of the priests, than by natural causes.

Beyond this court there was usually an inner vestibule, with columns forming porticos on the four sides; those opposite the entrance being connected by stone screens, reaching half-way up, forming a shaded anteroom, or pronaos, to the great hall of assembly, which was the next apartment.

The shafts and capitals of the columns varied in different buildings. The plain cylinder, carrying an inverted bell decorated with palm or other smaller leaves, or a capital in the shape of the lotus flower were the commonest forms. A column, representing the stems of water-plants bound together with rings, and swelling out at the top in the place of the capital, was also often employed. Besides these, statues of kings, or shafts surmounted by the heads of Isis or Osiris, were used as supports. The architrave, or beam, did not rest directly upon the capital, but upon an intermediate block. This block, when on the heads of deities, was in the shape of a miniature pylon. The cornices were formed of a deep cove and fillet decorated with winged asps.

Some idea of the size of these inner vestibules, or peristyles, may be formed from the dimensions of that in the great temple of Medeenet Haboo, which measures 123 by 133 feet, and has a height of 39 feet 4 inches. Each of the porticos of the East and West sides is supported by five columns; those on the North and South by eight Osiride pillars, having a circumference of 23 feet and a height of 24 feet.

The great hall of assembly, which adjoined the vestibule, was generally the finest portion of the temple. The architraves supporting the roof rested upon a great number of lofty columns, which in the centre rose to a greater height, in order to obtain a clerestory, by which the hall was lighted. The largest of these is in the temple of Karnak, measuring 170 by 329 feet. The central avenue consists of twelve columns, 62 feet high by 11 feet 6 inches in diameter. Besides these there are one hundred and twenty-two others, 42 feet 6 inches in height and 28 feet in circumference. The lintel over the doorway by which it is entered measured 40 feet in length. The sanctuary was contiguous to the great hall, and terminated the suite. This consisted of a chamber, either occupying the whole of the rear space, or isolated by corridors on each side, with smaller sanctuaries opposite. In many of these, altars and statues have been found, some of the former formed of a single block, hollowed at the top and pierced through from top to bottom, so that sacrifices placed upon them could be consumed apparently without ignition, by means of fires kindled in subterranean vaults.

In connection with the halls in the temple of Abydus and elsewhere there were a number of vaulted chambers; the vault not being formed of a series of true arches, that is, with joints radiating to a common centre, but consisting of stone beams placed one beside the other, and hollowed out on the under side. The arch, however, was not unknown to the Egyptians—there are stone vaulted tombs at Sakkarah of the time of Psammetichus (650 B.C.), and crude brick arches have been found at Thebes dating as far back as the period of the eighth dynasty (2925 B.C.?). The antiquity of the arch has been the subject of much debate, owing chiefly to the fact that the Greeks made no use of it; recent explorations have, however, shown that this constructive expedient was known both in Egypt and Assyria many years before it was adopted by the Etruscans, to whom its invention was long attributed.

The exterior walls of all temples were built on a batter, sloping inward at an angle of about seventy degrees and with scarcely any openings. The inside walls were perpendicular, and decorated with bass-reliefs and paintings. These were often of a most elaborate character, and it is from them that so much has been learned concerning the ancient history of the country.

The rock-cut temples of Nubia are laid out on much the same plan. They usually consist of a pronaos, naos, and sanctuary, forming a suite, with an entrance marked by colossal statuary hewn out of the side of the cliff. Some have a dromos of sphinxes, propylæa, and a peristyle court of masonry preceding the excavated portions. The temple of Wady Sabooah is the best example of the latter. Of the former none can compare with the Great and Small temples of Aboo Simbel, or Ipsambool, which are of the time of Rameses the Great.

The smaller of the two is dedicated to the goddess Athor, the Venus of the Egyptians. The exterior is ornamented with six statues of deities recessed in the rock, each measuring thirty-five feet in height. In the interior there is a first hall, supported by square pillars, opening into a corridor, flanked by smaller halls, leading to the sanctuary.

The front of the Great temple is adorned with four statues of the king seated upon his throne, each sixty feet high. In the great hall there are eight Osiride pillars, upward of thirty feet in height. The sides of the speos are carved with bass-reliefs, representing the conquests of Rameses the Great.

There are some sixteen smaller chambers, the suite terminating in the sanctuary, which contains an altar and four statues—the three deities, Amun re, Phre, and Phtah, with the king seated in their company.

Under the headings tombs and temples are comprised the chief architectural works of the Egyptians. Besides these there were one or two gigantic constructions, famous in antiquity, but which have now almost disappeared. Of these, the Labyrinth and the Lake Moeris were the most important. The former appears to have been an immense structure, half palace, half tomb, built by Amenemha III., of the twelfth dynasty. It was built on three sides of an open square, measuring about five hundred feet on the side, consisting of numerous chambers and courts, in two stories, one above and the other below the level of the ground. At the open end was placed a large pyramid, of which the ruins still remain. Herodotus admired the Labyrinth more than any other of the Egyptian buildings, declaring it to surpass the pyramids in labour and expense. Near by was the artificial Lake Moeris, formed to retain the Nile waters during the inundation, for the purpose of irrigating the country surrounding Memphis, during the dry season. It covered an immense area; tradition says 450 miles in circumference. The banks were fortified with massive masonry, and the waters distributed by means of locks and sluices.

The Egyptians appear as a civilized nation, having a scientific, artistic, and political knowledge of no mean order, at a time when the greater part of the world’s inhabitants were but a step removed from the level of ignorant savages, and when, according to a generally accepted chronology, the world itself had existed but a few hundred years. The construction of the Pyramids reveals a building capacity which has rarely been rivalled, requiring not only immense mechanical power, but an accuracy of judgment and calculation in the adjustment of blocks of granite weighing many tons, not simply piled one above the other, but perfectly jointed and polished, and so disposed that passages and chambers were roofed over and their ceilings relieved from superincumbent weight by ingeniously contrived compartments, one above the other, and closed by sliding doors of monolithic stones, the handling of which could only have been successful by people well versed in the theories of equilibrium and support; and yet all this was done at a date which the best authorities agree in saying could not have been later than three thousand years before Christ. Their temples show an equally advanced erudition, and the paintings and hieroglyphics with which the walls of these buildings are adorned give a faithful representation of the customs of a people acquainted with the minor arts and sciences and the appliances requisite for agriculture.

The admiration with which we may regard the excellence of so ancient an art is tempered when we find that it contained no element of progress. The monuments of the eighteenth dynasty, though numerous and imposing, scarcely differ from those of the preceding period, and even in the days of the Ptolemys, who encouraged the native art, there was nothing attempted but a repetition of the old methods. From beginning to end the arts were so fettered by conventionality and dogmatic laws, opposed to originality or change, that the only improvements made were in mere mechanical execution.

A great prevailing thought seems to have actuated this people,—that of death and eternity. Their aim in erecting their buildings was to render them quasi-eternal, and by embalming the bodies of the dead they even sought to perpetuate the semblance of life. Their kings at the beginning of their reigns commenced the construction of their own sepulchres, employing hundreds of workmen and immense expenditure of the national funds for the purpose, and countless thousands passed their lives in hollowing temples in the mountain rock and in carrying huge blocks from great distances for the building of the pylons and hypostylic halls of the Nile, in which durability and massiveness were considered all-important.

Egyptian architecture, simply from the enormous scale of everything it produced, was always dignified and it had also the merit of severe simplicity; but mere size can scarcely be rated as an artistic quality of a high order, and on that account it cannot compare favourably with the art of the Greeks, who were probably inspired by what they saw in Egypt, but who, in their own work, succeeded in combining the qualities of majesty and beauty without resorting to the use of extraordinary materials.