Egypt Temples

Many of Egypt's temples became complex systems of buildings, added to by generations of pharaohs over sometimes thousands of years.Most Temples had some sort of organized structure that evolved into a traditional, if somewhat varied floor plan. the mortuary temple of 5th Dynasty kings had an outer section and an inner sanctuary. The outer section would consist of an entrance corridor, followed by an open columned courtyard. Often, the pillars were inscribed with the king's name and title, and the northern columns and southern columns would have scenes oriented to northern Egypt's symbolic gods and south respectively. Non-mortuary temples often also had courtyards, chapels, offering halls, vestibules, antechamber. Latter temples took the form of fortresses, with massive entrance pylons and enclosure walls, huge courtyards, columned or pillared halls and inner sanctuaries. Sites such as Karnak, would fall under the category of "god's mansion". There were also valley temples, which were often no more then monumental gateways connected to the king's mortuary chapel by a causeway. There were all manner of specialized temples, sun temples, coronation temples and others.

Temples of Egypt:

Column shafts were often decorated with colorful depictions in painted, carved relief, and remain some of the most interesting architectural elements in Egyptian structures. Lotus and Papyrus style columns are most well known Resembling either a trunk or a bundle of stems of smaller diameter. The shape of the capital, also had a plant theme, and at the transition of the capital to the shaft, five bands might be found representing the lashing which held together the bundle of stems of which the earliest columns were made. The type of column was usually dictated by its placement within the temple Bud style - outer temple courts, particularly away from the central axis Open style- capitals were most often found in the temples central areas.

Columns of Egyptian Architecture:

Plant Style Columns Fluted Column Palmiform Columns Lotiform Columns Papyriform Columns Coniform Columns Tent Pole Columns Campaniform Columns Composite Columns None Plant Style Columns Hathoric Columns Osiride Pillars

http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1540526&t=w

Papyrus Column

Lotiform Columns

Closed Bud Columns

Osiride Columns

Papyriform Columns

The Great Sphinx: The Sphinx is the oldest and longest stone sculpture from the Old Kingdom. During the eighteenth dynasty, it was called "Horus of the Horizon" and "Horus of the Necropolis” the sun god that stands above the horizon. In later times, many sphinx images were carved in smaller sizes or in cameos with the faces of the reigning monarchs. The face of the Great Sphinx is believed to be that of Chephren, the fourth-dynasty pharaoh who built the second-largest pyramid in the Giza triad. In the image of the Sphinx, the pharaoh was seen as a powerful god. Carved out of a natural limestone outcrop, The Sphinx is 19.8 meters (65 feet) high and 73.2 meters (240 feet) long

c.1180 BC (Small Temple: c.1490 BC; Chapel of Votaresses: 700s BC) Temple of Ramses III

Ramses III (1186-1155 BC) was buried in the Valley and modeled his great mortuary temple on the Ramesseum of his ancester Ramses II. The Mortuary Temple of Ramses III is made of sandstones. Beyond this are two smaller halls with pillars. Left of the first hall is the roofed funerary chamber of Ramses III. On the other side is a roofless chapel that contained a central altar. Beyond the Second Court is the Hypostyle Hall, now roofless. It originally had a raised central aisle like the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. The central aisle of the second small hall is flanked by statues of Ramses with Maat or Thoth (Thoth on Ma'at, Goddess of Truth and Mercy) and this leads to three sanctuaries in the far back The FIRST court is flanked by columns, the right set of which bears Osiris statues of Ramses III attended by knee-high queens. During Coptic times, the SECOND Court was used as a Christian church.

Mesopotamia & Babylon

To the east of Egypt another civilization appeared about 3000 BC, that of the Sumerians, the Assyrians and the Babylonians in the river valley of the Tigris and Euphrates called Mesopotamia, or the "land between the rivers."

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http://www.irows.ucr.edu/research/citemp/setsys/setsys.htm

Sumerian Architecture is the foundation of later Hebrew, Phoenician, Anatolian, Hittite, Hurrian, Ugaritic, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Islamic, and to a certain extent Grecoroman and therefore Western Architectures.

The credit of the modern brick of today, coloured bricks, glazed bricks, and fire burnt bricks goes to this civilization. The Arch was born here Even whole cities were raised on plinth .To control humidity, which was an overriding factor, well aerated houses were made. The art of brick making however excelled primarily due to plentiful alluvial soil. The rich fertile soil of the area, which was the result of the rich silt and water provided by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, attracted settlers to Mesopotamia. The rich land meant the creation of food surpluses, which allowed some settlers to move away from agriculture and into trade. It also resulted in the growth of the population that, in turn, gave rise to the process of urbanization. Since the land was marshy they lived and harnessed the marshes, stone was scarce. It was therefore used carefully. Rarely structures were built and rebuilt eventually ending up in solid foundation.

The Sumerian temple was a small brick house that the god was supposed to visit periodically. It was ornamented so as to recall the reed houses built by the earliest Sumerians in the valley. This house, however, was set on a brick platform, which became larger and taller as time progressed until the platform at Ur, built around 2100 BC was 150 by 200 feet (45 by 60 meters) and 75 feet (23 meters) high. Mesopotamian temple platforms are called ziggurats, a word derived from the Assyrian ziqquratu, meaning "high”.

The ziggurat was part of a temple complex that served as an administrative center for the city, and it was also thought to be the place on earth where the moon god Nanna, the patron deity of Ur, had chosen to dwell.

http://www.bible-archaeology.info/Ziggur4.jpg

The holy mountains were constructed on earth mounds, with plinths of stone and an outer lining of brick. They were oriented such that the corners face the cardinal directions. Apart from the fortifications and the Ziggurats , buildings of all types were arranged around large and small courts, the rooms narrow and thick walled carrying brick barrel vaults and sometimes domes. The roofs were usually flat outside except where domes protruded. Burnt Bricks were used sparingly for facings Where special stress was expected. Walls were whitewashed ,or, as in the case of the Ziggurats were painted in color. The Mesopotamian doorways were spanned by double semicircular arches. Windows were rare. The ziggurat continued as the essential temple form of Mesopotamia during the later Assyrian and Babylonian eras. In these later times it became taller and more tower like, perhaps with a spiral path leading up to the temple at the top.

Uruk, built on the floodplain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers about 5000 years ago, was the first large settlement that we call a city. Other cities soon emerged on the floodplain and this first system of cities emerged in a region that had already developed hierarchical settlement systems based on complex chiefdoms. For seven centuries after the emergence of Uruk, the Mesopotamian world-system was an interactive network of city-states competing with one another for glory and for control of the complicated transportation routes that linked the floodplain with the natural resources of adjacent regions. The relationship between cities and states is a fundamental aspect of all complex social systems.