Illustrated Architecture Dictionary
Egyptian / Egyptian Revival Architecture
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Illustrated Architecture FeaturesCartouche ............ Chevron ......... Columns ......... Cavetto cornice ...... Hieroglyphics...... Hypostyle ......... Lotus ......... Mythology ......... Narmer .........Obelisk ......... Palm (palmette) ......... Papyrus ......... Pylons ......... Cavetto ......... Chevron ......... Columns ......... Cornice ......... Hypostyle ......... Lotus ......... Mythology ......... Narmer .........Obelisk ......... Palm (palmette) ......... Papyrus ......... Pylons ......... Pyramid ......... Roll molding ......... Sphinx
Cartouche Chevron
Columns
See Hypostyle Hall - Karnak Temple Complex: Columns
Cavetto cornice / Egyptian cornice
Ancient system of writing based on symbols or pictures to denote objects, concepts, or sounds, originally and especially in the writing system of ancient Egypt.
Egyptian hieroglyphs decoded in 1882 (Wikipedia: Rosetta Stone).
Cartouche: an oblong, or oval, magical rope which was drawn to contain the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics that spelled out the name of a King or Queen.
- Illustration: Karnak Temple Complex, Egypt Includes a cartouche
Hypostyle:
(HIGH pa stile)
Having a roof or ceiling supported by rows of columns
- Illustration: Hypostyle Hall - Karnak Temple Complex Near Luxor, Egypt
Lotus Mythology Narmer:
In 3000 B.C.., King Narmer of upper Egypt defeated the ruler of Lower Egypt and established the first political dynasty to rule one unified country.
Obelisk
Palm (palmette)
Papyrus plant
Pylons:
Monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple, consisting of a pair of tower structures with battered walls flanking the entrance portal.
Supposed to represent the akhet (horizon) hieroglyph.
Pylons are the largest part of the temple and were mostly built last.
Steeply battered pylons resisted earthquake shocks.
See also: Karnak Temple Complex, Egypt: Pylons
Pyramid:
First pyramid was a step pyramid built in 2650 B.C. The steps represent a gigantic stairway for the king to climb to join the sun-god in the sky.
Later King Sneferu's pyramid had sloping sides, the intent being to recreate the mound that had emerged emerged out of the watery ground at the beginning of time.
The largest pyramid is the Great Pyramid at Giza, built for King Khufu (Cheops) in c.2589 B.C.
- Illustration: Great Pyramids at Giza
Roll molding:
Any convex, rounded molding, which has (wholly or in part) a cylindrical form; a plain round molding
- Illustration: Good Mausoleum
- Illustration: Great Sphinx of Giza
Egyptian ArchitectureAn ancient architecture along the Nile River from Neolithic times (3000 B.C.-200 A.D.)
Egyptian Architecture - Houses
The wealthy lived in palaces or villas; the the general population lived in row houses built of sun-dried mud bricks. Huts were made of reeds with inward sloping (battered) walls and thick bases to resist the annual Nile inundation.
Evidence for what ordinary houses were like in ancient Egypt is gotten by looking at model houses that have been found buried in tombs and by surviving Egyptian houses built in the traditional way. Both were constructed of bricks, shaped in a wooden mold, made of chopped straw mixed with sun-dried mud from the Nile banks covered over with a thin layer of plaster. Both were built to a simple, square design, with a flat roof, sometimes topped by a terrace where the inhabitants could sit and enjoy the cool, fresh, evening air. Inside, the rooms were small and dark, with narrow windows and low ceilings. Some houses had two storeys; others were all on one level. Many had cellars for storage, dug into the rough ground underneath.
Most people lived in villages, clustered along the banks of the River Nile. Village houses were built close together, for strength and security. The villages were surrounded by ditches and fields. Nearby, was the bleak, endless desert, for the Egyptians this was the home of the dead.
Egyptian Architecture - Funerary monuments and temples
Tombs and temples reproduced the elements of domestic architecture on the grandest possible scale and in the most durable materials. Bundles of papyrus stalks used as supports in mud huts were transformed into the majestic carved stone papyrus fluted columns (see below) and capitals. of the temples.
No less the about 30 different column forms have been isolated from temples of the various periods. Most of the time, the columns shafts were copies in stone of supports made from plants, resembling either a trunk or a bundle of stems of smaller diameter. Also the shape of the capital, the top of the column, 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. Above the capital a low abacus usually connected the column to the architraves placed above it.
Massive funerary monuments and temples were built of stone using post-and-lintel construction, with closely spaced columns carrying the stone lintels, supporting a flat roof. A hypostyle (having a roof or ceiling supported by rolls of columns) hall, crowded with columns, received light from clerestories.
In the very earliest of Egyptian history, columns were often made from one large monolithic block. However, in all later periods columns were usually built up in sectional blocks that were then first shaped and then smoothed from the top down. They were then normally painted, and afterwards, were difficult to tell that they were not cut from a single piece of stone.
Column shafts were often decorated with colorful depictions in painted, carved relief, and remain some of the most interesting architectural elements in Egyptian structures.
Egyptian columns
Reprinted from
A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method, by Sir Banister-Fletcher, New York, 1950, pp. 41-42; Drawings: p. 43Columns, seldom over six diameters high, often appear in the form of papyrus (see below) or lotus (see below) stalks tied at intervals by bands.
The circular shafts curve in towards the base like sheathed stalks and sometimes stand on thick unmoulded bases which in shape somewhat resemble a Dutch cheese.
Another form of support were the Osiris pillars used in the mortuary temples at Thebes, the forerunners of the Caryatids of the Greeks, while the 6-sided columns of the Tombs at Beni Hasan are another variety.
Capitals mostly follow the forms of the lotus (emblem of Upper Egypt), the papyrus (emblem of Lower Egypt), and the palm, and are as follows:
(a) The lotus bud, conventionalized Drawing
(b) The lotus flower, which formed a bell-shaped capital sculptured and ornamented with colours. Drawing
(c) The papyrus plant. Drawing
(d) The palm capital with painted or sculptured palm leaves. Drawing
(e) Composite capitals formed of rings of lotus flowers and volutes, held by some to be prototypes of Greek Corinthian capitals. Drawing
(f ) Hathor-headed capitals ... formed of heads of the goddess supporting the model of a temple front. Drawing
Egyptian Architecture - Examples:
- Left illustration above: Temple of Dendur, Nubia
- Great Pyramids / Great Sphinx at Giza, Egypt
- Karnac Temple Complex, Luxor
- Egyptian palm capital - British Museum, London, England
- Sphinx - British Museum, London, England
- Composite papyrus capital - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
- Palmette capital - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
See also:
Egyptian Revival FURNITUREEgyptian Revival Architecture
The First Revival: Napoleon's Empire style - Early 19th century
In France, Napoleon's Egyptian campaign of 1798 stimulated a taste for Egyptiennerie manifested in the decorative arts and a few built structures.
A revival style (1830-1850) distinguished by distinctive columns and capitals and a smooth monolithic exterior finish.
The Second Revival - 1920s Art Deco Substyle
Egyptian motifs were taken up in the 1920s by Art Deco architects and designers.
Sparked by the discovery of Tutenkhamen's tomb in 1922, the Egyptian Revival style became popular during the decade, its application to funerary art especially appropriate.
Egyptian Revival style Although it was not frequently used. Egyptian Revival style seemed most appropriately applied to building projects associated with eternity and the afterlife -- churches, prisons, cemeteries. Egyptian Revival's potential for exotic, mysterious theatricality lent itself well to movie-palace design of the 1920s.Egyptian Revival Features:
- Battered walls
- Roll or rope-like moldings
- Bundled shaft
- Lotus flower capital
- Smooth ashlar finish providing a monumental effect reminiscent of pylons or gateways to Egyptian temples
- Deep cavetto or gorge-and-roll cornice (Egyptian cornice)
- Flat roofs generally
Egyptian Revival examples in Buffalo:
- Right illustration above: Daniel Good Mausoleum
- Ryley Mausoleum
- Pierce Monument Portal
- Gilbert Monument Sphinx
- McKinley Monument Obelisk
- 204 Allen Street Cavetto cornice
