THE ARCHITECTURE
Strange to say, Egyptian architecture has never yet been systematically
studied; we know nothing of its proportions and variations.
The earliest constructions were of brick, or of palm-sticks interwoven.
From the necessary forms of these all the details of the stone
architecture have been copied. A parallel is seen in Greece, where
the architecture was an exact transcription of a wooden building, the
triglyphs, mutules, and guttae being the beam-ends, tie-boards, and
pegs formerly belonging to woodwork.
[Illustration]
For the greater security of the corners of brick buildings, the
Egyptians tilted the courses up at each end, thus building in a
concave bed, with faces sloping inwards. This slope was copied in the
stone-work, and is seen on the outsides of all Egyptian buildings (see
fig. 83). The inside faces are always vertical, and this serves to
distinguish the meaning of small portions of wall in excavations.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Slight structures were made of palm-sticks, set upright, and lashed
to a cross stick near the top, with other palm-sticks interwoven to
stiffen the face, and the whole plastered with mud. Such construction
is made now in Egypt, and is seen in the earliest figures of shrines.
At the top the ends of the palm-sticks nod over, and form a fence to
keep out intruders. This row of tops is the origin of the stone cavetto
cornice, which always stands free above the level of the roof. At the
corners the structure of palm-stick was strengthened by a bundle of
sticks or reeds lashed round, and put as a buffer to prevent a blow
breaking in the edge. This became the roll with lashing pattern which
is seen down the edges of the stone buildings, and also beneath the
cavetto cornice where it is copied from the line of sticks below the
loose tops (see fig. 83).
[Illustration]
Another form of construction was with papyrus stems. These had a
loose, wiry head like an _Equisetum_ or mare’s tail. When used for a
cabin on a boat, the roofing stems were put through the loose head,
which was tied above and below to hold them. Hence the row of heads
became copied as an ornament along the tops of walls, and continued in
use thus down to the latest times.
The use of the arch was familiar from early times. Even before the
pyramid-builders small arches of bricks were made. They were the
general mode of roofing in the XIIth dynasty, when we see them drawn
and imitated in stone. From the XIXth dynasty there remain the great
arched store-rooms of the Ramesseum. Being of dried mud brick, which is
far more easily crushed than stone or burnt brick, the circular form
was not suitable, as the apex would yield by crushing. A more or less
parabolic form was therefore used, so as to give a sharper curve at
the top. To protect these arches from the weather, they were laid four
courses thick, with a deep layer of sand and gravel over the top, to
absorb any rain as a sponge.
Arches were usually built without any centring; and to this day the
Egyptian similarly builds arches and domes of any size without centring
or support. Each ring of arch is laid on a sloping bed, so that the
thin arch bricks on edge will stick in place by the mud-mortar until
the ring is completed. The same construction is started in each corner
of a room until the arching meets in a circle, when the dome is carried
round ring on ring, increasing the dip toward the top. The successive
coats of an arch are often bedded on opposite slopes, so that the rings
cross each other.
The outer form of a temple was always a blank wall on all sides, as
at Edfu, which preserves its circuit wall complete. Usually the outer
wall has been removed for building (fig. 83), and the inner courts with
columns are exposed. In further ruin all the walls of squared blocks
are gone, and only a group of pillars is left on the site.
A typical building of the early age is the temple of red granite built
by Khafra at Gizeh (fig. 81). The pillars are 41 inches square, and
there are sixteen of them in the two halls. The work is perfectly
plain; not a trace of ornament is to be seen in this or other temples
of the IIIrd-IVth dynasties. Only on the outside was there a panelling,
like that on the brick buildings and stone sarcophagi of this age.
The masonry of this temple is much less exact than that of the early
pyramids. The whole effect of it is grand and severe, with the noble
breadth which belongs to the early times.
The tower front of the temple at Medinet Habu (fig. 82) is one of
the few façades that is preserved. It was copied from the Syrian
fortresses, and shows how the Asiatic influences had entered Egypt
during the three centuries from about 1500 to 1200 B.C.
[Illustration: ARCHITECTURE
81. Granite temple
82. Medinet Habu
83. Dakkeh]
The most complete view of a whole temple is that of Dakkeh (fig. 83).
The girdle wall has been destroyed, thus exposing the components of the
temple clearly. At the left is the great pylon, the gateway through the
girdle wall. This led to the portico, which was the front of the house
of the god, like the porticoes to human houses. Behind this a cross
passage, of which the door is seen at the side, passed in front of the
shrine and its ante-chamber. This was one of the most perfect small
temples, but it has been much destroyed in recent years.
[Illustration: EARLIEST FORMS OF COLUMN
84. Palm capital
85. Rose lotus
86. Blue lotus]
The massive square pillars of the granite temple gave place before
long to more ornamental forms. The principal types are the palm and
lotus in the Vth dynasty, and later the papyrus. The palm capital is
shown on the granite columns of Unas (fig. 84). It was probably derived
from a bundle of palm-sticks bound together and plastered with mud to
stiffen them, like the bundles of maize-stalks which are still used for
columns. Around the top of it some of the loose ends of the palm-sticks
were left with the leaves to form a head.
The lotus capital appears likewise as a shaft decorated with buds
around it (fig. 85). In this case the buds are the short, thick ones
of the rose lotus, with flowers of the blue lotus put in the intervals
under the abacus. But the lotus bud soon became treated as a solid
support, and in the capital of the blue lotus (fig. 86) the whole is
formed of four lotus buds. The bands of the tie were always strongly
marked, however changed the capital might become in later time. The
papyrus column belongs mainly to the XIXth dynasty, as in the great
hall of Karnak. It was the most incongruous of all, as a single
gigantic head of loose filaments was represented as supporting the
whole weight.
Plain polygonal shafts were also common. Some octagonal ones occur in
the Vth dynasty. In the XIIth dynasty they are sixteen-sided, keeping
the four main faces flat and slightly hollowing the others. This was
continued in the earlier part of the XVIIIth dynasty, but after that
the polygonal form almost disappears.
Here we can only touch on some of the artistic elements; the
architecture as a whole is beyond the scope of so small a volume.