TOMB ARCHITECTURE

 

The Ancient Egypt civilization flourished along the Nile river in northeastern Africa for more than 3,000 years. It was the longest- lived civilization of the ancient world so it was the home of ancient civilization in the world. During prehistoric period the country with number of villages under different cultures had developed a proto agriculture economy as early as 12000 B.C. In around 3200B.C. the two parts of Egypt (the Lower and the Upper Egypt) was united under the god King Menes (Narmer) and beginning of Historic Dynasties period begun. This ruler was named PHARAOH.

Geographical situations and blessings of Nile river, which formed the focus of ancient Egyptian civilization, originates in the highlands of East Africa and flows northward throughout the length and branches out to form a broad delta, through which it empties into the Mediterranean Sea, had converted desert into green fertile land and most of the development had taken place in that soil. So, Nile river was truly a holy blessings for Egypt and during the rules of dynasties great achievements in Architecture took place along this river. Most of the developments were historical buildings ad structures.

Egyptians use to worship king as god and for the sake of same god huge structures like tombs, temples etc. were constructed. These structures were the outcome of the belief in future life (after death) which is the governing idea of the religion of the Egyptians. This is given the name of Funerary Architecture.

TOMBS

Tombs were religious in origin and are outcome of hope for life after death. These were the chamber built above or below ground to hold the remains of the dead above a grave. Anciently, tombs were taken as the home for the dead ones and were fully equipped with articles for use in life after death. Tombs have inspired great architecture and provided much information about the past. The prehistoric practice of burying the deceased under their houses probably led to one of the earliest forms of tomb, the chamber covered by a mound of earth. Another form of tomb was a chamber cut out of living rock. Early Christian tombs were subterranean galleries known as catacombs. As civilization developed, tombs become more elaborate. The body was often enclosed in a sarcophagus or coffin, within the tomb chamber, which could be painted, and the basic tomb mound became an architectural monument to royalty or a religious leader, often becoming a place of worship as well.

Basically tombs can be classified into three categories depending upon their structures and shapes.

• Mastabas
• Royal pyramids
• Rock hewn tombs

1] MASTABAS

       An Ancient Egyptian rectangular flat topped funerary with battered sides build over the burial site during the first and second dynasties are called mastabas. The mastabas were developed basically to have lasting tombs, to preserve the body, and to bury with in the finest commodities that might be needed for the sustenance and eternal enjoyment of the deceased owner. The long sides of the mastabas had a north-south orientation.

            In second dynasty a stone slab was placed in mastabas carved with an image of the deceased tomb owner which marked the place for offerings. During next two dynasties, the niche was gradually cut deeper into the solid mastaba, so that the offering place lay within it. This was the ‘stairway’ mastaba. In fourth dynasty stone mastabas began to replace those of mud bricks. At around this dynasty period a small offering chapel was constructed within the mastaba itself. Tomb chambers were sunk more deeply in fifth (2465-2323B.C.) and sixth (2323-2152B.C.) dynasties. The large mastabas of the highest officials had a series of decorated rooms for the performance of funerary rituals. These rituals focused on a false door on the west wall of the offering chamber-door that connected the worlds of the dead and living. The tomb’s owner was buried in a burial chamber at the bottom of the shaft cut deep into the ground below the chapel.

         

              In old kingdom, some chapels were cut out of rock, cliffs. During much of the Old Kingdom, most elite tombs were built near the capital city of Memphis, but by the 6th Dynasty, officials concerned with provincial administration were building their tombs in the provinces they governed. This tradition continued into the Middle Kingdom until the 12th Dynasty (1991 B.C.–1783 B.C.). The large decorated tomb chapels of the Middle Kingdom were cut into the cliffs that run along the edge of the Nile Valley. Elite cemetery of the New Kingdom lies on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes. The rock-cut tomb chapels there take the shape of a T. They are entered from an open court through a door that leads into the cross bar of the T, with the shaft of the T straight ahead. Instead of false door the deceased placed in a niche on the back wall of the chapel.

 

MASTABA OF THI SAKKARA

A large pillared court is attached to the north end of the east side approached from the north by a portico which has a serdab along side. A passage connects the cort with a small chamber and an offering room, with two pillars, lying inside the mastaba itself. This is equipped with two stelae and an offering table against the west wall, and south of three slots through the intervening wall corresponding to the three duplicate states.

2] ROYAL PYRAMIDS

 Pyramids are the large structures with four triangular sides that meet in a point at the top, directly over the centre of the pyramids square base. The Egyptian pyramids are the biggest and famous in the world. These pyramids are basically built as tombs for kings and queens, but they were also places of ongoing religious activity. After a ruler died, his or her body was preserved as a mummy and placed inside the chamber in pyramid.

The ancient Egyptians built more than 90 royal pyramids from about 1630 B.C. until about 1530 B.C. During that time pyramid shape and size evolved from step pyramid at Saqqarah constructed during the reign of king Djoser. Then bent pyramid evolved with change in the angle of inclination (54degree and 15 minutes lower part and 43 degree in upper part) with a plan (178m) square and height 102m. Then finally true pyramid was constructed near Cairo (2730-2500 B.C.) These true pyramids at Gizeh (Lower Egypt) became world-renowned and flourish the name of Egypt.

These pyramids were built with immense labor and materials, during the life of the Pharaoh, to secure the preservation of dead body after death. They were built in a series of concentric slopping layers around a steep pyramidal core. Levers were used but they don’t know about pulley. Wooden sledge were used for transportation of stone block. Basically pyramid is made up of stone. The smooth exterior of the pyramid was made of a fine grade of white limestone. Low grade lime stones were used for pyramid core and pink granite were used in inner walls. Basalt was not uncommon for floors.

 The interior of the pyramids use to be little bit complex with a series of passages leading to several rooms. The most important room is the King’s chamber and that of the Queen’s. All pyramids were aligned to the cardinal directions. Most pyramids rose from desert plateaus on the west bank of the Nile river, behind which the sun set. When the sun sets in the west, the royal spirits settled into their pyramid’s tombs to renew themselves. The internal layout of pyramids changed over time, but the entrance was typically in the centre of the north face. From here a passage ran downward, sometimes leveling out to the king’s burial chamber, which ideally was located directly underneath the pyramid’s center point.

I] STEPPED PYRAMID

 

In the first (2920B.C.-2770B.C.) and second (2770B.C.-2649B.C.) dynasties the kings were buried at the city of Abydos in graves topped with a pile of clean sand inside low-lying brick walls. By the third dynasty (2649B.C.-2575B.C.) kings were being buried underneath large mud brick rectangles called mastabas. After that pyramid were constructed for burial process. The first pyramid designed by Architect Imhotep and built by Pharoah Zoser (2778B.C.) in the beginning of third dynasty. It was the first man made huge structure in stone. After many changes in plan and shape it got its final shape.

 

         It began as a complete mastaba, 7.9m high unusual in having square plan with sides of 63m. It was then twice extended and went on changing in shape and size. Finally it was bought to dimensions   of 125m from east to west  by  109m  wide  and  60m high, with  addition  of  two steps in initial making, six in all. A vast rectangular enclosure   with a massive Tura limestone wall with bastions (fourteen in all) surrounds the pyramid. There is a small offering chapel and a well developed mortuary temple containing two courts, amaze of corridors and many rooms. There in the pyramid independent of the main subterranean system is a series of eleven separate pits (32m deep), these were of members of the royal family.

  It stood in the middle of a rectangular enclosure. Also within the enclosure were various other buildings some of which could be entered, while others had no doors. These buildings functioned only for the spirit forms of the dead king and the gods, who were believed to be able to pass through the thick rock walls. This was built of stone. The Saqqarah design combined the tomb and funerary enclosure so that the burial, placed under the pyramid, lay with the funerary enclosure. Looking as a whole the masonry technique and the almost total absence of free-standing columns, together with the small spans of the stone beam roofs, indicates the novelty of stone as a building material at this time.

PYRAMID AT  MEYDUM

            This is attributed to Huni, last king of 3^rd dynasty. It was a seven stepped pyramid structure with six thick layers of brick masonry, faced with limestone with having angle of inclination as 51⁰

II] BENT PYRAMID

King Sneferu, built the initial true pyramids, at the town of Maydūm which began as a step pyramid with inward-leaning walls and eight levels. After working on the structure for 14 years, Sneferu moved his burial ground north to Dashur for unknown reasons, and construction began on another pyramid. This one, too, was made of stone blocks that leaned inward. It was designed with an angle of 60 degrees (to the ground), but as the pyramid rose, it started to sink because of the weight and angle of the stones. To solve this problem, the builders put up an outer supporting wall, giving the half-finished pyramid a shallower angle of 55⁰ and finished the upper portion of the pyramid off with a slope of only 43 degrees. Due to shift in angle from 55 to 43 degrees this pyramid was named Bent Pyramid.

During its construction, architects discovered that, on the upper portion, instead of leaning the stones inward, they laid down horizontal layers of larger stone blocks. With the new technique, the pyramid shape resulted because each level was slightly smaller than the one it lay upon. The North Pyramid was then constructed with same new technique, it proved so successful that Sneferu returned to Maydum, while construction was still in progress on the two Dashur pyramids, and refined the Maydum pyramid by adding an outer level constructed with the new approach.

 

This pyramid has two entirely independent tomb chambers, reached one from the north side and one from the west. The change in slope had the object of lightening the weight of the upper masonry, as the walls of chambers and passages began to show fissures. The plan is square, 187m and height 102m, the materials being the usual local stone with Tura limestone facing, well preserved. Around the pyramid there was a double-walled rectangular enclosure, an offering chapel and a mortuary temple on the east side and a causeway leading to the valley building. The subsidiary structures here probably provide the first instance of what was to be the customary complement and arrangement.

III] THE GREAT PYRAMID

 The great pyramid is the invaluable treasure of Egypt. It is the largest pyramid ever built in the history of mankind. It was built during King Khufu’s reign (2551-2528 B.C.). It lies in the desert west of Giza, accompanied by the pyramids of Khafra and Menkaure (Khufu’s son and grand son). Natural environment has invited many changes in its outer material and levels have been dismantled but it still maintains its identity in the world.

            This pyramid possesses nearly a square base which   is equally leveled. It was built on a relatively flat area of bedrock for stable foundation. This pyramid was originally 146.4m high and 230.6m square on plan, with an area of about 13 acres. The four sides, which, as in all periods with only a minor exception, face the cardinal points, are nearly equilateral triangles and make an angle of 51⁰ and 52 minutes with the ground. Built solidity of local stone, the pyramid originally was cased in finely dressed Tura limestone blocks and the apex stone perhaps gilded. The offering chapel lies in the east face while mortuary temple stood axially in front of it. At a little distance south-east of the east face of the pyramid are three subsidiary pyramids with chapels on their own east side, tombs of cheops’ queens.

 

            The interior of the pyramid is complex, with a series of passages leading to several rooms. The king Khufu’s chamber is the most important room in the pyramid. The entrance to the Great Pyramid was set 17m above ground level. It was intended to use only once, during Khufu’s funeral. The entrance leads to the descending passage and reaches the subterranean chamber. The ascending passage runs upward until it levels out and enters the queen’s chamber. The walls of the unfinished Queen’s chamber grow closer as they rise and meet at a single point at the ceiling. The ascending passage intersects with one end of Grand gallery, a large, corbelled passage way 47m long and 8.5m high. The Grand gallery most probably held some of the large stones that were used to plug passages after the king’s funeral. At the point of intersection there is an air tunnel in the western wall. At the upper end of the Grand gallery, another level corridor runs south into the king’s chamber which is simple rectangular room with red granite furnished. There are openings to the shafts in the northern and southern wall that runs towards the exterior of the pyramid.

During its construction teams of bakers, carpenters, water carriers and others probably served the pyramid builders, so that a total of about 25000 men and women may have been worked and lived near the construction site for years. For its interior most of the stones was quarried immediately to the south of construction site. The exterior blocks had to be carefully cut, transported by river barge to Giza, and dragged up ramps to the construction site. To ensure that the pyramid remained symmetrical, the exterior casing stones all had to be equal in height and width. Workers marked all the blocks to indicate the angle of the pyramid wall and trimmed the surfaces carefully so that the blocks fit together. During construction outer face of the stone was left unfinished; excess stone was removed later. When the pyramid was completed workers dismantled the ramps from the top down, they slowly exposed the pyramid’s stone surface which stone masons had smoothed and polished. When the ramp was gone, the pyramid was exposed.

IV] PYRAMID OF CHEPHREN

It was built in 4^th dynasty and is the second of the three great pyramids at Giza. It has 216m side and 143m height with a slope of 52⁰ and 20 minutes. There is only one chamber at the core, partly in the rock and partly built-up, but two approaches to it from the north one through the stonework and the other subterranean, these joining halfway. Limestone casing is preserved near the apex and two base courses of the facing were of granite. The offering chapel and the mortuary temple were in the normal positions axial on the east face. The latter, 113.3m from east to west and 47.2m wide was of limestone, lined internally on the north. There were five deep chambers for statues of the pharaoh, to the west of the great open court, the central one wider than the rest. Behind them were corresponding stores, serdabs and the only entrance to the pyramid enclosure. There was a fore-temple in the east of the court, with two pillared halls and long serdabs on the wings.

The valley Building is in 44.8m square and battered outside and vertical within. In this building and on its roof, various ceremonies of purification, mummification and opening of the mouth were conducted. Dual entrance leads to T- shaped granite-pillared hall which is being lit by slots in the angle of the wall and ceiling. There are three chambers in two tiers, off the southern arm of the hall, while on the opposite flank an alabaster stair turns through angles to the roof. Great Sphinx of Chephren is to the north-west of the Valley Building, the enigmatic monster left by cheops’ quarry – masons after carving from a spur of rock. It bears the head of Chephren, wearing the royal head-dress, false beard and cobra brow ornament and has the body of a recumbent lion. It is 73.2m long and 20m height, the face being 4.1m across. Deficiencies in the rock were made good in stone work.

PYRMID OF MYCERINUS

The pyramid of Mycerinus (Menkaura), 4^th dynasty, is much smaller than its two predecessors at Gizeh. Its dimension is 109m square and 66.5m high, with sides sloping at 51degree. Much of the casing is preserved, and is mainly Tura limestone but includes sixteen base courses in granite. The principal pyramids of 5^th and 6^th dynasties, all built at Abusir and Sakkara, were inferior in size and construction to those of the previous dynasty, and tomb chambers and their corridors were simpler and more stereotypes in arrangement.

 

3] ROCK-HEWN TOMBS

  These tombs were rare before the middle kingdom and used for nobility and not royalty. Pyramids of indifferent construction remained principal tomb of Royal tomb. By the new kingdom Rock hewn tombs are the choices of royal also.

I] BENI HASEN TOMBS

          These tombs were build during eleventh and twelvth dynasties in 2130-1785B.C. They consist of a chamber behind a portico façade plainly imitating wooden construction in the character of the eight-or sixteen sided. These tombs are belonged to a provincial great family. These tombs have slightly fluted and tapered columns and the rafter ends are above. Slightly vaulted rock ceilings, supported on fluted or receded columns, can be seen in some tombs. Generally the walls were lightly made and painted with pastoral and others.

II] TOMBS OF THE KINGS AT THEBES

These tombs are in the arid mountains on the west side of the Nile. They are the completely new type of tombs with almost no link with old royal pyramid tomb. It follows corridor type, in which stairs, passages and chambers extended as much as 210m into the mountain side and up to 96m below the valley floor. The sarcophagus usually lay in a concluding rock-columned hall and the walls were elaborately painted with ceremonial funerary scenes and religious texts. The most important tombs are those of Seti I and Rameses III, IV and IX. The tombs served only for the sarcophagus and funerary deposits; the detached, sited in the necropolis adjacent to the western, cultivated land, where there were similar but small tombs of high-ranking persons. A middle kingdom temple of MentuhetepII at Der le-Bahari is conjoined with the rock-cut tomb so, it is transitional, also due to a small pyramid in it confines.

CONCLUSION

        The royal tombs were the most prominent tomb architecture of ancient Egypt. They have evolved from simple pit graves (which continued to be used as tombs for common people), to oblong –shaped mastabas which themselves evolved over time being enlarged to accommodate annexed room and offering chapels. The pyramid is the final product of the evolution of the mastaba.

            The creation of tombs was an important development in Egypt. These tombs were special structures designed not only for burial process but also for praying for the deaths. There are many theories about how the pyramids were built and how the heavy blocks of stone were lifted into desired place. The most acceptable theory is that Egyptians used rafter, ramp, lever and wooden sledges as technology.

            Among the tombs pyramids were the most famous and heaviest structure. These pyramids are the world famous structures and have made Egypt known to the world by being one of the seven wonder of the world.