Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
5/21/13
May 21th, 2013
Documentary: Egyptian Architecture
Today in class we reflect a little bit about the history of architecture and how the Ancient Egyptians really contextualized and mixed functionality and aesthetics into their structures. The Pyramid of Djoser would be one example of this. Creation of this pyramid started at approximately 2700 B.C.E. during the reign of Djoser, which would serve as his final resting place. It consists of 6 slabs of limestone each decreasing with size while going up the pyramid. This is breaking the monotony of other civilizations in the aspect of this pyramid not being a single cube or hemisphere of a building. The Djoser Pyramid is also known as the Great Steps Pyramid. For religion, this could help or represent the Pharaoh Djoser's Spirit climbing the steps to be with the Sun.
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| Here we can see the large steps of the Djoser Pyramid. |
Each aspect of Egyptian Architecture has some form of religious or mathematical content embedded within limestone. For example the Precinct of Amun-Re must have taken decades upon decades to create, for it required tons of devotion and limestone to create the pillars of this temple. The pillars are colossal when compared with the average human being. On the pillars were hieroglyphs of the Pharaohs that worked on the temple. There is also much rhythm between the placement of the 134 pillars in the temple. Each one has been carefully placed and even the remains are symmetrical. Not only that, but the Egyptians' sense of mathematics lead them to calculate when the Winter and Summer solstices would take place, so that they could make the sun shine on the gods that they associated with the sun.
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| The sheer size of one pillar is fully realized when looking at the man taking a picture |
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| The Solstice occurring at the Amun-Re Temple |
https://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2009/08/13/the-bible-according-to-karnak.aspx
http://www.kch42.dial.pipex.com/egyptarticle_temple_orient2.html
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