The Egyptian Pharohs and Temples

The majority of ancient Egyptian structures studied by architectural historians and planners alike, were erected to honor a pharaoh or as a grand tomb for their journey through to the afterlife. Whether the structure was in the form of a temple, tomb or statue, the ritual and spiritual influence is unquestionable. The location, scale, and materials used to construct these monuments are all defining factors of how the space is used and functions.

As the ruler of Egypt, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth, and when he died, he was thought to become Osiris, the god of the dead. The first Pharaoh, Menes, united Egypt in the Old Kingdom, and brought order to the land. It was the pharaoh’s duty to build great temples and monuments celebrating his own achievements and honoring to the gods of the land. Additionally, the pharaoh would lead religious ceremonies, choose the sites of temples and dictate what work would be done. As lord, the pharaoh made the laws, owned all the land in Egypt, collected taxes and made war and defended the country against attacks. The Pharaoh was seen as a human God and was respected by everyone in Egypt, making is easy to maintain order in the land. The New Kingdom was the final set of rulers and covered the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties of

The divinity of the pharaoh would be later reduced in magnitude. People in Ancient Egypt would drift away from the royal hierarchy and create their own small community city-states. The pharaoh's power would diminish so much that, Egyptians during that time started to be that the pharaoh himself was no longer a god, but merely the son of the god Re. The quality of the crown started to fade showed overtime you started to see small communities establish their own royal hierarchy and build their own pyramids to represent their status. The size of the pyramids were the result of this shift in power. Eventually, the pharaohs became a major contributor in their own downfall. There were marriages of non-royal women this led to the belief that the divinity of the royal line was diluted, thereby reducing the pharaoh's power. In addition, the royal treasury was rapidly being decreasing due to maintenance costs of pyramids being built. It wasn't long until the priesthood and the nobles saw that they were as wealthy as the pharaoh After Pepi II, central government was completely lost, and anarchy reigned.

Pharaohs were eminent figures to the people of the New Kingdom Egypt who had control over the entire Egypt itself as they were leaders of both politics and religion. The Valley of the Kings was the burial place chosen to be the final resting place for pharaohs of the New Kingdom era. The structure of the royal tombs were constructed to imitate that of the underworld, and were built underground to protect the tombs from tomb robbers – the tombs were not intended to be seen by outsiders. Each tomb depicted the pharaoh’s personality, and their interests and such, as the tombs vary from decoration and possessions placed alongside the body. The general construction of the tomb included: an entrance corridor with wall paintings; the decorations on

The Sphinx was built as a tomb for the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom in Egypt. The mixed form, both animal and human, is significant, especially since they were normally just built as regular pyramids. It is an important symbol of Egyptian kingship and religion because pharaohs were expected to be a form of a god that is capable of living on earth in person form.

It was a custom for new pharaohs to start building their eternal life houses. However, king Khufu probably wanted a more special house. The architectures of king Khufu made the design for his tomb as a very large pyramid with complex system of rooms inside. The reason for the complex system was to deceive thieves and it won’t be easy for them to loot the tomb like the tombs of his ancestors. Khufu’s pyramid was massive in size probably to show how powerful he was, even if he wasn’t. Other pharaohs follow the lead of Khufu and build their tombs as pyramids as well.

While it may seem that the Ancient Egyptians built the Great Pyramids purely to gaze at, there is a much more symbolic reason behind the construction of these symbolic structures. The Egyptians believed that by building the pyramids they honored the pharaohs, even in death. Since all of Egypt’s pharaohs were believed to be living impersonations

One of the first humans, or hominids, was discovered to be living in the eastern and southern regions of Africa approximately three to four million years ago. They were named the Australopithecines, which means “southern ape-men.” These bipedal hominids developed basic stone tools. Another kind of hominid known as the Homo habilis, or “handy humans,” was discovered in Africa by Louis and Mary Leakey in 1959. The Homo habilis had a significantly larger brain than the Australopithecines. Equipped with a more complex brain, these hominids were able to not only walk upright, but also to gather various nutritionally beneficial foods such as seeds, nuts, and meats. But the Homo erectus,

In Christianity, we have one god, but in ancient Egypt, there were over 2,000! Ancient Egypt was the longest-lasting empire, it survived about 3070 years! Along with having so many years under its belt, it also had many deities. While most were personal deities or the guardian of a species, some were very important to Egyptian culture. Some of the most important were Ra, Horus, and Anubis, just to name a few. Great temples were created to honor these gods, in fact, people believe that Christianity was based on some Egyptian gods.

Sometimes the one of the most interesting things about an artwork is what has happened to it since it was made. This mortuary temple of Ramesses was actually moved in the 1960s up the hill. The Egyptians needed to build a dam on the Nile, and it would flood the original location. Many countries got together to help preserve and move this massive monument. Here is a little video about the move:

Pharaoh took the throne in Egypt only to come to quick conclusions. The pharaoh stated, “See! The Israelite people have multiplied…let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase” (Ex. 1:9-10). Pharaoh is not happy to see all of the Hebrews occupying his city. He therefore puts them through harsh, intensive labor. He expects the Israelites to build him a magnificent city and to only

Did you know that people in Ancient Egypt had to work all day on building monuments?

The Egyptian Pharaonic temples are traditionally made of different stones (limestone granite, diorite, and/or sandstone and quartzite) shaped into large heavy blocks or as colossus statues. One of these is the colossi of Thutmose II and Amenhotep III at the west of the Eighth pylon doorway at Karnak temple which made out of red quartzite from Gebel el-Ahmar, located at north- east of Cairo. Quartzite is one of the famous stones that were widely used during the heights of ancient Egyptian civilization. The Colossi of Thutmose II and Amenhotep III were subjected to many exogenous or endogenous deterioration factors which causes of a severe damage of the stone materials. In this study we document the weathering of quartzite colossal statues at

The pyramids were built as a tomb for the pharaoh. Their belief was that the top point of the pyramid was the gate for the soul to travel to the afterlife and return to earth if chosen. These tombs were built which line up with certain stars and planets.

The main two motivations for Egyptian art and architecture were to please the gods that they worshiped and to provide happiness as well as safety for their "ka" in the afterlife. In order to please the gods and ensure their continuing goodwill toward the people, kings built splendid temples and provided priests maintain them. The deepest rooms of these temples contained representations of the gods in various forms some were human, other animals, and still other a combination of the two. The well-known pyramids of Egypt were erected to honor the gods. The angles sides may have been meant to represent the slanting rays of the sun and writings on the walls tell of passed kings ascending those rays to join the sun god.