Egyptian Architecture

When we remember that all the time, since the beginning of the Christian Era, is not far from half as long as the period from the time of the Pyramids to the birth of Christ, we get some feeling of the long ages through which the Egyptians lived. Millions of them were slaves, working, not through love, but by force; building their tremendous monuments.

The Egyptians had knowledge of science and could do things which to-day we do not know how to imitate. Some of their arts are lost to us, such as how to preserve the bodies of the dead, nor can we make colors that will remain unfaded for thousands of years as theirs have done. They also understood geometry, chemistry, medicine, anatomy, and music. That they practised many of the principles of mechanics is shown by their ability to move the great stones of their Pyramids, and their monuments, and temples. They also manufactured glass, some of it of a kind that we cannot now produce.

The architecture of Egypt has been divided into three great periods: First comes the Ancient Empire, from about 5000 b.c. to about 3000 b.c. This was the period of the Pyramids. The next period is called the Middle Empire, and extends from about 3000 b.c. to about 1700 b.c. This is the period of the rock-cut tombs. The third, and last, of the great periods is the one called the New Empire, which extends from about 1700 b.c. to about 350 b.c., and this is the period during which the great temples were built, such as Karnak, Luxor, and Edfou. Although we have selected the Pyramids for our illustration, we ought to remember that the period of the temples was the greatest, and produced lasting monuments of the greatest beauty.

First, their great mass and size. A single stone was sometimes over twenty-five feet long, and it had to be brought miles from the quarry.

Second, note and remember their peculiar style of column, a picture of which is given on page 27, Figure 3.

Third, imagine all of their works to be covered with the greatest profusion of color. They had their own ideas about decoration, and often covered every inch of a building with pictures, symbols, and designs. Many were carved, some only painted, and all of them had some meaning connected either with religion or with the rulers. The rawness of the colors, most of them the crude primary colors, is also characteristic of the Egyptian style.

Fourth, note the fact that the structure of their buildings was almost always that which we have described as the architecture of the beam or lintel. We define a lintel as a beam of wood, or iron, or stone, or some other substance, over the top of a door, or window, or any other opening, to carry the weight of the wall above.

We have just used the word "structure." Let us stop for a moment at this word, for structure and structural are words that we often meet with in books on architecture. The structure of a building is the most important thing about it, for everything else depends upon it. Everything rests upon the structure, and the minor parts, if they are honest, will follow the main lines of the structure. Good lines in the decoration of a building should follow the basic structure, and to say that a decoration or orament is "not structural" is to condemn it. Let us be sure that we know what this means. For instance, if the structure of a building was of the lintel type, and we concealed this by covering it up with material so as to make it appear like an arch, we should be neither honest nor structural.

If a column is so placed that it does not support anything, it becomes merely an ornament. Such a column has not the dignity of one that is doing real work. In general, that which is honest in architecture, as in life, is good; while anything that is make-believe, and pretends to be something that it is not, is poor, and does not command our admiration. It is a law in architecture, that beauty comes first from utility, and that nothing must ever be done to deceive. If you bear this in mind, you will rightly feel ashamed of some of the buildings which you may see in most modern towns.

Fifth, note another peculiarity of Egyptian architecture in the slope or slant so often given to the walls, where ours would be exactly upright or vertical. If the Egyptian idea of greatest strength was a sloping wall, do you suppose they would have spoken of an honest man as a sloping man?

The most ancient monuments of the world, the Pyramids, were built as burial places for the kings. They consist of masses of stone and brick raised up around the chamber where the body of the king was to lie. The tomb was made so that the place where the body lay would be secret, and secure from thieves. Yet, to-day, there is not a tomb that has not been explored and rifled. The material used was limestone cased over with granite, and the passages were lined with granite. The outside was cased with polished stone, perhaps of many different colors. The largest of the Pyramids was the tomb of King Cheops. It was 760 feet at the base, 484 feet high, and had an area of 577,000 square feet. The angle of the slope was about 50 degrees, but the angle of slope of the different Pyramids is never alike. The jointing of the stones was done with the greatest nicety, and the construction throughout shows wonderful scientific skill.

George Ebers writes, in his description of one of the Pyramids: "For a moment the enveloping cloud lifts from the horizon and we see the prodigious Pyramids standing before us with their sharp triangles, and then the mystic curtain falls. To the right and left, we sometimes see buffaloes grazing; sometimes flocks of silver herons; sometimes a solitary pelican within gun-shot of the carriage; then half-naked peasants at their daily labor; and pleasing villages some distance from the road."

As we stand before the largest of these works of man, which, as we know, the ancients glorified as "wonders of the world," it is only by a comparison with other structures, present in our memory, that we can get any idea of their immensity. If the tomb of Cheops were hollow, St. Peter's at Rome could be placed within it like a clock under a glass cage. If the tomb of Cheops were razed, a wall could be built of its stones all around the frontiers of France. "Time mocks all things, but the Pyramids mock Time," says the Arabian proverb.

The Pyramids.

Let us think for a moment, of the Pyramids in relation to the principles given in the table, especially as to the principle of fitness. Do you not feel the fitness of these big masses of stone to their surroundings in the sandy desert, and to their use as the tomb of kings? The Egyptians looked upon their houses as temporary abodes, but upon their tombs as permanent dwellings. This fitness of things is essential to the beauty of any object, be it building, painting, or anything under the sun.

There is a solemnity about Egyptian architecture, and great strength, but, of the many elements in the table, few could be applied to the Pyramids. Repetition, variety, and ornament, for instance, are not among their qualities. However, I think we can select two elements of beauty that are always in the Pyramids; namely, symmetry and simplicity. The Pyramids present an almost perfect symmetry, and yet perfect symmetry in buildings, as in pictures, may make them seem monotonous, but if there is not perfect symmetry, there must be at least a feeling of balance.

One way to look at a building is to regard it somewhat as a picture, for buildings and pictures have much in common. To be sure, they also have many points of difference, for painting is an imitative art, while architecture is not so. But, in judging the effect of a building upon our sense of the beautiful and upon our emotions, we find that many of the principles and laws are just the same as in painting. The fine arts are all modes of the expression of people, or nations, or ideas, and their production is governed by laws. We compose a picture, we compose a piece of music, and, no less we compose a building; and the laws of composition must be followed in the one as in the others. Ruskin, who wrote much about art and architecture, gives us some laws of composition in architecture, one of which is the "law of principality." This applies to all of the fine arts. "First determine what is the principal thing," he said; "you may have one large mass and several smaller ones, but there must be one prominent above the rest." Proportion is another important matter in architecture. Symmetry, which is as necessary in architecture as in painting, can be had where all the parts are of equal size, for symmetry is mere regularity of structure; that is, having one side exactly balance the other; but proportion must be of three unequal things at least. Proportion, principality, symmetry, are things you will often hear mentioned in regard to buildings, and you will feel their meaning more and more as great buildings become familiar to you. In a building, too, as in a picture, there are masses of light and shade. Some one has said that the deep shadows cast on the faces of buildings are to remind us of all the troubles, labors, and disappointments that are met in erecting a building, and those who must occupy it, be it prison or workshop, and of all the troubles in life itself. If we refer to the table on page 11, we shall see that the above points about buildings and pictures are matters that pertain to the principle of beauty in architecture.

The most important thing that the Egyptians sought for in their works was duration; and so dry is the climate that not only the monuments of stone, but many of the most fragile cloths and woods, have withstood destruction to this day.

In the Pyramids, extreme simplicity is combined with symmetry. Do you not sometimes look at a wooden house, covered with ginger-bread ornamentation, and wish that you could tear it off? If so, you feel that it is not simple enough, and that the house would look better without that filigree work. Think of the simple, dignified Pyramids. Are they not good to look at?

Prophylon or Gateway at Karnak, Egypt.

The illustration above, shows the great Prophylon of the Temple of Karnak. Such a monumental gateway usually stood before the entrance to a temple. Notice the carving, the inward leaning of the walls, and the design at the top, which was the Egyptian symbol of divinity. The first image below shows the portico of the temple at Edfou. Notice again, the inward slope of the sides, also the flat roof, the shape of the capitals, and columns, and the profuse carving of the walls. The second image below shows the hypostyle Hall of Karnak. Any structure, with or without walls, the ceiling of which is supported by columns, is called a hypostyle. The Hall of Karnak is one of the greatest temple interiors in Egypt. The third image below was the obelisk, another monument common in Egypt, which was supposed, by its shape, to symbolize the rays of the sun. These tapering shafts were of a single piece, the top or apex usually sheathed in a bronze top. They were probably set up in honor of the kings. The third image below the tomb at Beni-Hassan on the western side of the Nile, is often cited to show that the Greeks copied their Doric column from the old Egyptians. Compare the columns in the illustration of this tomb with the Greek Doric column on page 36, and see if you do not think they are similar. The truth is, that although the Greeks did borrow, they altered and improved whatever they took, until it was almost a new creation. Shakespeare borrowed the plots of some of his plays, and it seems that the mind of genius loves to seize upon something old, and give it greater life. The great architects of to-day, instead of inventing new orders and styles, recombine and apply the old ones.

Portico of the Temple of Edfou.

Story and Anecdote

It is said that, in building the pyramid of Cheops, King Khufu employed seven million men in forced labor for thirty years.

Hypostyle Hall of Karnak, Egypt.

In the Boulak museum at Cairo, many of the instruments used by the early Egyptians are preserved. There are set-squares, rulers, palettes, paint boxes, and models of pylons, and, among other things, plans drawn on stone and colored, to show different materials. Many architects' names have been preserved upon tombs. At Munich there is a statue of the principal architect of Thebes, Bakenhonson. Perrot says that architects were sometimes recruited from among the princes of the royal blood. There is one genealogical table in which the profession is shown to have descended from father to son for twenty-two generations.

The great aim in building the pyramids was to make them last so that they might defy earthquake and other enemies, including time itself. If the stones and masses had been smaller, all might have vanished before now.

Obelisks at Karnak (Thebes) Egypt.

All writers do not believe that the workmen upon the pyramids were really oppressed. One writer suggests that the building work was probably done during the annual inundation of the Nile, when the king fed and clothed the poorer classes, who might not otherwise have been able to live.

Tomb at Beni-Hassan, Egypt, showing so-called proto-Doric columns.

The Egyptian king was looked upon as the representative of the gods.