Ancient Africa: Egyptian Temple Architecture

Old Kingdom Middle Kingdom New Kingdom

King Zoser’s Mortuary Complex

Great Pyramids, Giza(mortuary complex)

Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut

Temple of Amon, Luxor

2600 BC

2500 BC

2030 BC

1550 BC

1400 BC

I. From Middle Kingdom uncertainty to New Kingdom confidence: Stone architecture for pharaohs and gods

Nile Valley in Upper Egypt

I. A. Historical Context: Political power sharing: pharaohs, priests, and nobles

Middle Kingdom (ca. 2040 – 1640 B.C.)

A rock-cut tomb at Beni Hasan, 2000-1900 B.C.

I. B. What major change was there in Middle and New Kingdom mortuary temple design compared to Old Kingdom (Saqqara and Giza)?

Middle Kingdom Mortuary Temple of Mentuhotep,

2061-2010 BC

I. B.

New Kingdom: Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple, Deir el-Bahri,

Egypt, c. 1500 BC

I. B.

Actual burials in the Valley of the Kings

Middle- and New-Kingdom mortuary templesat Deir el-Bahri

Mortuary temples facing the Nile River

I. B.

Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple

Great Pyramids at Giza

Old Kingdom Middle Kingdom New Kingdom

Mentuhotep’s Mortuary Temple

II. Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple: innovation and tradition in Egyptian design

Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple

Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple

II. A. Tradition: Queen Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple and earlier mortuary complexes  1. Major parts of the New Kingdom mortuary temple

Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple

II. A. 2. How did Senmut’s design dramatize the progress of the processional ritual for Hatshepsut?

Great Pyramids at GIza

II. B. Innovation: Aspects of the new temple design that could be attributed to gender . . . 1. Colonnades, open terraces

Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple

ramp to third terrace

Great Pyramids at Giza

Like the myrrh terraces of Punt, mythical homeland of the gods

II. B. 2. Landscape orientation

Great Pyramids at Giza Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple

“welded to the rockscape as if nature were an extension of Senmut’s design” (Kostof 82)

II. B. 2.

ramps up and in views back and out

Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple

a framed view on the central axis

II. B. 3. Architectural language: Is it more representational (vernacular) or more abstract?

Hatshepsut’s “proto-Doric” columnsColumns from Saqqara and GizaDoric columns in Greece

II. B. 3.

polychrome Osiris statues with the face of Queen Hatshepsut

Egyptians were the first to use stone columns not merely as structural supports but as forms connoting certain values.

Hatshepsut’s Mortuary TempleOsiris

New Kingdom Temples near Thebes

III. New Kingdom Temples to gods and the Elaboration of Spatial Progression

Temple at Luxor

Temple at Karnak

III. A. Context: Why did the truly extensive monumental temples not come about until the New Kingdom period (1552-1070 BC)?

displays power through gigantismTemple at LuxorTemple at Karnak

Avenue of Sphinxes

Temple at Luxor

III. A. What are the parts of a New Kingdom Egyptian temple in spatial progression?

Temple at Luxor

pylontruncated pyramidal towers flanking the

entrance of a temple

EastWest

Inner sanctuary hypostyle courtyard

Temple at Luxor

Phase 1

pylon

Phase 2

courtyard

III. A.

Pylon

Archaic hypostyle columned entrance

(as at Saqqara)

EastWest

inner sanctuaryhypostylecourtyard

Temple at Karnak

pylon

The Four Characteristic Parts of an Egyptian Temple Again

pylonshypostylecourtyard

III. A. 1. Why do the parts of the temple often repeat themselves?

Temple at Luxor

Egyptian royal palace at Amarna, c. 1350 B.C.

inner sanctuary

hypostyle

courtyard

III. A. 2. What is Kostof’s approach to this spatial progression as a product of ritual?

Difficulty of approach

Limited or graduated access

Spatial Progression

vertical wall & passage

open, sunny & defined

half-light, half-dark mystery

small, low, utterly dark

4. hypostyle 3. courtyard 2. pylon5. inner sanctuary

III. B. Section by section, what are the spatial/experiential qualities shaping the ritual progression and to what does each section correspond in representing the Egyptian creation myth?

LuxorLuxorLuxorEdfu

(Temple of Horus at Edfu)

III. B. 1. temenos wall

threshold = pylon

III. B. 2. pylon

Karnak

Luxor

Luxor

III. B. 3. courtyard

Luxor

KarnakVeil of mysterious semi-darkness

clerestorey

III. B. 4. hypostyle hall and its clerestory

a space half filled with mass

III. B. 4. a. the character of the hypostyle hall as an interior space

Spaces created by Egyptian clerestorey-lit hypostyle halls

Zoser’s Funerary Complex Giza (Chephren’s Valley T.) Karnak hypostyle hall

III. B. 4. a.

III. B. 5. inner sanctuary

(Temple of Horus at Edfu)

Geography and Landscape Kingship (pharaohs v. priests)

Religious belief in the afterlife Symbolic architectural language Ritual