Case study about Egyptian Architecture: Focus on the Evolution of Egyptian Pyramids - Research Paper Example

?Case study about Egyptian Architecture: Focus on the Evolution of Egyptian Pyramids The Egyptians pyramids are amazing monumental art of the past civilization 7,000 years ago, with Pyramid of Giza as one of the most ancient of all, which brought a revenue of $ 13 B in 2010 alone (Hoffman, 2012). Most of these pyramids are built in the western portion of the Nile River and within the desert zone. Historians wrote that Egyptians had these beliefs that if the Pharaoh would live forever if their bodies are mummified (Hoffman, 2012). Under this pyramid cones are Pharaoh’s or its queen’s remains and his belongings that are preserved by the dry desert heat from decomposition (Hoffman, 2012). Their bodies were wrapped to be mummified. The largest and the famous of these pyramids is that of Pharaoh Khuf that was built over 140 meters high and took 20 years of construction. These pyramids are guarded by sphinx that stands in front of all pyramids in Giza that is architecture with the body of a lion and the head of the pharaoh (Hoffman, 2012). Each of the stone block is waist-high and its creation awed some tourists who marvelled deeply about how the constructors worked to build all these stone tombs of Egypt prominent Pharaohs and one of the historical global mysteries (Hoffman, 2012). The pyramids walls were painted with significant scenes from the dead person’s life. Artists from the ancient generation carved hieroglyphs on the chamber walls to safeguard the monarch’s passage into the afterlife (Mohamed, 2011). These hieroglyphs are composed of hymns, magical spells, some reminders of good behaviour when meeting with the gods, and some textual information (Mohamed, 2011). Hieroglyphic scripts are pictorial in nature of man-made objects and are painted with colours. This includes phonograms as represented by rebus principle and of symbols (Mohamed, 2011). Rebus is a message spelt visually in images that the meaning can be taken not literally but by understanding its connotation (Mohamed, 2011). For instance, combined pictures of eye, bee and leaf should be read as eye-bee-leaf and understood as “I believe.” Ancient Egyptians named this script as mdju netjer or "words of the gods." Hieroglyphs however evolved too overtime and are replaced with combined symbols (Mohamed, 2011). These are produced in lines and squiggles of which the ancient Egyptian could read. Note that the first hieroglyphs are written in pottery at about 3100 B.C.E. of the late predynatic period and the last glyps are accordingly written in a temple in the island of Philae in 394 A. C. E. Although hieroglyphic script are supposedly originally written on the surfaces of walls but this has become written text to different surfaces (Mohamed, 2011). It is recently carved on stones although became confined to religious and monumental use. They call this hiera grammata or hieroglyphica as "the sacred carved letters (Mohamed, 2011)." Anthropologists explained that the things preserved inside the pyramids and the paint revealed the life they lived and what they valued while they ruled their respective kingdom (Mohamed, 2011). They believed that these things will be needed in the afterlife. In an adjacent temple, the priests do some rituals to nourish the monarch’s spirit. This kind of burial right is vested only to kings because the poor Egyptians, who died with many causes, were buried in the sand—another social evidence of dichotomy of social class (Mohamed, 2011). The pyramids of Ancient Egypt underwent several changes and evolution too before its geometric shape was taken. Edwards (2012) related that Egyptian tombs were formerly simple pit of sandy desert lined with reed mat. There was no distinction about how the pharaohs and the common people were buried back then until the such period when religious beliefs are developed in Egypt which made them decide to bury their king with artefacts as necessary materials in the afterlife (Singha, 2010). It’s not really clear how these religious belief progressed which mixed the mundane nature of human being that is attached to materials whence living and the afterlife period when kings also bear the their transition as finite mortals on earth. But yes, the survivors of the kings and its royalty bury their ruler with numbers of artefacts and historians related that the pit became a rectangular hole supported with mud bricks of timber (Edwards, 2012). They used mastabas in the creation if mounds, to support the timber poles and bricks. In the last centuries, the interior of mastabas was developed more to purposively confuse tomb robbers and to add more room to keep the pharaoh’s possessions. Sands, rubbles and stones were used as barriers to the tunnel and the entrance was reconstructed to make it appear as part of the wall (Edwards, 2012). Aside from glyps, painted servants were also drawn on the interior walls to serve the king. Tombs for pharaohs servants were also built around the king’s mastaba in 3,200 B.C and were decorated with ornate brickwork that looked like timber and reed matting. But albeit methods used to betray robbers, the latter are still to steal artefacts inside because the interior designs of these mastabas are generally similar (Edwards, 2012). At the time of Pharaoh Zoser, mastaba further underwent some developments. Bricks were replaced with stones and two more false doorways were added at the eastern side as access of pharaoh's ba or soul (Edwards, 2012). The serdab, an inner part of the serdab, was utilized as a place for statue of the buried king to house the ba in case the body is disturbed (Edwards, 2012). A narrow slit at the eastern part is presumed as the exit of ba to the outside world. As precaution or in case the statue is destroyed, the ancient architect Imhotep bore the name of the pharaoh at the foot of the statue. Zoser's pyramid has a burial chamber at the bottom part with 92 ft. shaft (Edwards, 2012). The interior steps were covered in hand-chiselled limestone sourced from the quarries of Aswan of the Nile River (Edwards, 2012). The chamber entrance can be accessed by through a sloping passage at the north face. There are gallery rooms located at the extreme bottom of the shaft which leads to the King's burial chamber. The latter is ornamented with timber and blue tiles (Edwards, 2012). Imhotep concept of the stone mastaba was developed into four level tombs comprising of arranged mastabas with decreasing sizes as they reached the peak (Edwards, 2012). These steps within the pyramid were moulded as ladder for the dead king to reach the apex part and be in touched with gods (Edwards, 2012). The serdab and offering chapels are placed at the temple with two open courtyards and is located at the northern part of the pyramid (Edwards, 2012). The temple’s roofs are made of stone slabs that were carved and painted to look akin to palm-trunk ceilings (Edwards, 2012). There are more than 90 royal pyramids constructed since 2630 BC to 1530 BC. The shapes evolved from a series of terraces to sloped pyramidal shaped. Step Pyramid at Saqqara was made at the time when King Djoser (Zoser) from 2630 BC to 2611 BC (Mohamed, 2011). As mentioned earlier, King Khufu in Giza in presently regarded as the great pyramid and one of the Seven Wonders of the World that remains frequented by tourists all over the world (Mohamed, 2011). Khufu’s pyramid is built with the pyramids of his sons Khafre and Menkaure (2552 BC- 2528 BC). Khufu’s pyramid has a perfect square base extending at 19-cm (about 7.5-in) with an estimated length of 230 m (756 ft). When its construction was completed, the pyramid stands 146.7 m (481.4 ft) or is near 50 stories (Mohamed, 2011). It was estimated that the whole structure used up 2.3 million blocks each of which weigh 2.5 metric tons per block. The largest block weighs 15 metric tons (Mohamed, 2011). Builders of Khufu pyramid considered all technical matters and opted the flat bedrock to ensure stable foundation (Mohamed, 2011). Surveys were conducted and they decided that the pyramid be constructed in horizontal levels. The exterior sides of the pyramid were made of fine grade white limestone quarried across the Nile River. It was contended that these materials are transported by a river barge to Giza and ramped through toward the construction site (Mohamed, 2011). This was considered as the tallest edifice in the world from 2500 B.C till 1889 until the construction of Eiffel Tower of Paris (Mohamed, 2011). There are many stories about how the pyramid is built but the process of building these structures remained unknown. Some engineers theorized that the ancient civilization dragged these blocks on sledges to the top through ramps (Mohamed, 2011). Anyone could imagine the hard labour employed by workers. The use of ramps, made of bricks and earth rubbles, in the construction is maybe true as ramps were found at the site (Mohamed, 2011). The stones used were quarried from local zones and were transported using wooden sleds in the absence of trucks in the olden time that could load and transport them in haste (Mohamed, 2011). Experts contended that the pyramids internal layout changes but the entrance remained at the centre of the north side where a passage could lead anyone downward that at times could level to the king’s burial chamber—which is technically should be located underneath pyramid’s center point (Mohamed, 2011). Underneath, there were storage chambers where valuable items own by the king are kept. Because these are expensive materials own by the king, robbers have stolen these things (Mohamed, 2011). Some pyramids have its complexes and satellites of small and queen pyramids (king’s principal wife) (Mohamed, 2011). The former is too small to be considered as tomb and their purpose remain mysterious. Anthropologists recorded that the biggest pyramids is not from the Egyptian but the Tlachihualtepetl pyramid located in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico (Mohamed, 2011). Another pyramid was constructed in 2600 B.C.as pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb. Story bared that when this pyramid was discovered by Egyptologist Howard Carter, the anthropologist died due to mosquito bite on his check and so was his dog which howled and died too (Mohamed, 2011). His companies thought it strange to find, after removing the death mask of the pharaoh, a similar lesion from mosquito bite was also found on his cheek, akin to that of Carter. They afterward believed that such death was a pharaoh’s curse (Mohamed, 2011). Other 138 pyramids of rulers from 2630 B.C to 2250 B.C. have their unique features too (Mohamed, 2011). The Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara was built in 2630 BC with 204 feet in length. Maidum Pyramid under the reign of Pharaoh Snefru was built in 2600 BC with 306 feet length (Mohamed, 2011). The Bent Pyramid was built in 2600 BC at Dahshur with 344 feet length under the reign of Pharaoh Snefru. The Red Pyramid at Dahshur has 341 feet height was constructed in 2600 BC under the reign of Pharaoh Snefru (Mohamed, 2011). Pyramid Khafre, on the other hand was built in 2520 B.C. at Giza with a length of 471 feet. The Pyramid of Menkaure is built in 2490 BC with 213 feet length (Mohamed, 2011). Pyramid of Pepi II, on the other hand, was built in 2250 B.C. at Saqqara with 172 feet in height. Excavators and anthropologists have also uncovered bakery, butchers, granaries, cemeteries and healthcare facilities—signs that the ancient civilization was also organized (Mohamed, 2011). It must be remembered however that the Egyptian pyramids are tombs of kings and queens. Unlike the Mayan pyramids that are built for ceremonial purposes of religious leaders, the Egyptian pyramids large tombstones which became a tourist destination site due to its distinction with the rest of the world’s graveyards. These however represent some cultural evidences of the ancient Egypt world. Brock (2004) explained that it also depicted the architectural and engineering tastes of the ancient people of Egypt and the tools they used for construction of edifices. For instance, a surveying measuring rod at found within the temples of the pyramids (used as offerings) proved that they are using “two main units of length in the ancient society: the small cubit of about 45 centimetres in length divided into 6 palms, each of which was further separated into 4 fingers, with even fractional divisions from halves down to sixteenths contained on some rods (Brock, 2004).” Brock (2004) further described that the ancient people used the larger royal cubit, mh, (about 52.5 centimetres) for building construction and land survey with hieroglyphic representation from the forearm to the fingertips. Ancient Egyptian engineers also regarded 100 square cubits as kht (2735 square metres). They also earned a distinct surveying and measurements (Brock, 2004). Reference Brock, J. F. Pyramids to Pythagoras: Surveying from Egypt to Greece – 3000 B.C. to 100 A.D. Workshop. History of Surveying and Measurement, Athens, Greece, pp. 1-17. < http://www.fig.net/pub/athens/papers/wshs2/WSHS2_2_Brock.pdf > Accessed: 13 December 2012. Barrow, M. Ancient Egypt, Woodlands Junior School, UK. Web. < http://www.chiddingstone.kent.sch.uk/homework/egypt/pyramids.htm > Accessed: 13 December 2012. Edwards, I.E.S. Pyramids: Building for Eternity - Ancient Egypt: Discovering its Splendors/ The Evolution of Pyramids. National Geographic Society, OracleThinkQuest Education Foundation. Web. http://library.thinkquest.org/10098/egypt2.htm Accessed:13 December 2012. Hoffman, C. Pyramids at Giza. National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 2012. < http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/egypt/pyramids-at-giza/> Accessed:13 December 2012. Singha, R. Egyptian Pyramids Facts. Buzzle.com, Web. 2010. < http://www.buzzle.com/articles/egyptian-pyramids-facts.html > Accessed: 13 December 2012. Mohamed, R. Egyptian Pyramids, Egyptgiftshop.com, 2011. Accessed: 14 December 2012 Mohamed, R. Egyptian Heiroglyphics. EgyptGiftShop.com 2011. http://www.egyptgiftshop.com/pharaonic_egypt/hieroglyphics.html#.UMq5w-Q-uSp Accessed: 14 December 2012 Read More