Ancient egyptian planning effort By Teshager Mengesha

1. Ancient Egyptian Planning Effort

2. Introduction
objective
Ancient Egyptian Geography
Location
Climate
The political /Social Structure
of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt's Social hierarchy
Duties of Each Level
Urban Planning in Ancient
Egypt
Types & characteristics of Cities in
Ancient Egyptian Civilization
The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt
Technology & Inventions
Planning elements of ancient
Egypt
Ancient Egyptian planning
principles & characteristics
Lessons learnt from Ancient
Egyptians
Conclusion
Out lines

3. 1. Introduction
• Ancient Egyptian civilization is one of the
most important civilizations that influenced
human heritage. More than 4000 years ago, the
story begins with the village life of farming and
animal husbandry in the highlands above the
Nile Valley.

4. With especially the influence of their religion and
believes, there was created one of the most significant
cities in the history of architecture.
• Ancient Egypt has many features when compared
with the other civilizations in that time. This superiority
comes with a denser population and their higher level of
social development.

5. • When we compare the social context of Ancient Egypt and
other civilizations in such an early stage, we can easy observe the
sophisticated level of culture, art and architecture.

6. 1.1 Objectives
General Objective
• To understanding the emergency and trends of Planning
in ancient Egypt.
Specific Objectives
 To reflect the historical dimensions of city growth in
ancient Egypt and its bearing on current.
 To assess the planning effort, tools and indigenous
practices used during that period.
 To understand the growing complexity of urban
problems with time change
 Appropriate the art of ancient Egyptian towns/cities.

7. 2.Ancient Egyptian Geography
The geography of Ancient Egypt was an interesting
concept from the perspective of the ancient
Egyptians themselves. They believed their country
was divided into two distinct geographical sections,
the black land (the fertile banks of the river Nile)
and the red land (the barren desert that covered the
rest of the country).

8. 2.1 Location
• The location of ancient Egypt was in North-Eastern Africa,
having formed and flourished along the lower portion of the Nile
River. It made up most of what is now the modern Arab Republic
of Egypt.

9. 2.2 Climate in Ancient Egypt
The climate of ancient Egypt was much the same as it is
today; a hot, dry desert climate with very little rainfall.
Coastal areas would benefit from winds coming off the
Mediterranean Sea, but in the interior, these winds were
hardly felt and temperature was high, especially in the
summer.

10. • The well-known summation of Egypt's existence as the
“Gift of the Nile" came from the Greek philosopher
Herodotus. The philosopher rightly observed that
everything that caused the Egyptian civilization to exist
and flourish came from the Nile. Very little rain fell in
ancient Egypt, certainly not much more than falls in the
present, and so drinking water, washing water, water for
crops and animals, all of it came from the Nile.

11. The River Nile in Egypt

12. The social structure of ancient Egypt can be sorted into a
social pyramid. At the top of the social pyramid was the
pharaoh with the government officials, nobles and
priests below him/her. The third tier consisted of the
scribes and soldiers with the middle class in the fourth
level. Peasants were the fifth tier of society with slaves
making up the lowest social class.
3.The political /Social Structure of Ancient Egypt

13. 3.1 Ancient Egypt's Social hierarchy
Often, people from a single level
would live in the same area of a
city. The levels of the pyramid
could shift and individual tiers
were more powerful at different
times.

14. 3.2 Duties of Each Level
 Pharaoh
• The Pharaoh was a god on earth and the ultimate authority in
Egypt. It was his/her duty to make the law and maintain order in
the Kingdom. The Pharaoh owned all the land in Egypt but he
could gift land to other people as gifts or to award them.
Maurizio Zanetti - Statue of Thutmose III

15.  Government Officials
• Government officials consisted of members of the
royal family, nobles and priests. The royal family made
up the original members of the government, the highest
position of which was the vizier.
Maia C - Relief of an Ancient Egypt nobleman

16. Scribes and Soldiers
Scribes, part of the third level of the pyramid, were
some of the only people in Egypt who could read and
write. They kept the records of the country including the
amount of food produced and gifts presented to the
gods.
Charlie Phillips - Seated Scribe statuette

17. The Middle Class: Craftsmen and Merchants
 Merchants
• The middle class consisted of craftsmen, merchants and
other skilled workers such as doctors. Merchants sold
the goods made by craftsmen and doctors treated injuries.
 Peasants
• Peasants were the farmers, servants and constructions
workers. The government employed construction
workers who built royal buildings like pyramids and
palaces.

18. 4. Urban Planning in Ancient Egypt
• The ancient Egyptians relied on the construction of
cities because of the population density at the time, and
with regard to the existence of the Nile River as the
Lifeline of the Egyptians, both in Upper Egypt and
Lower Egypt.
• The reasons for the foundation of a new settlement
could be varied: security often combined with
economics, cultic and administrative needs, military
settlements and political motives. The main
consideration where to build was generally proximity to
a waterway and height above the floodplains

19. • The outlay of the city itself was rectangular with an
orthogonal street grid, it was surrounded by a brick wall
and divided into two parts by another wall. Generally
different social classes did not live in separate city
quarters. But here there was a rich residential area,
where a handful of palatial 60 room residences were
fifty times as big as the dwellings in the poorer half of
the city. This part had also a wide street leading to the
palace.

20. The streets all over the city were laid out in
approximately straight lines. The alleys leading to the
workers' dwellings ended in cul-de-sac. The main street
was nine meters wide, as opposed to the alleys and
streets in the residential districts which were
sometimes as narrow as 1½ meters. The streets had
shallow stone channels running down the middle for
drainage.

22. 4.2 Types & characteristics of Cities in Ancient Egyptian
The ancient Egyptians divided the cities into two types, the first
type and they called it NWT and NUT they called my blood.
NWT and NUT refers to the city which grew and formed
naturally under the influence of nature and climatic conditions.
Demi refers to the cities that were built and settled according to
predefined planning, and examples of these cities were evident in
the city of Lahoun, Tell el-Dab’a, and Deir al-Madina. In
addition to the presence of other cities established on the
planning of civilization as well

23.  Tell al-Dabaa
The Daba Hill area is one of the main cities in the early
Middle Kingdom, around 2000 BC. It was discovered
by the remains of the city located so far with an area of
about 100 square meters. The city streets are surrounded
by a wall, each containing 10 rows of houses in each
row. He discovered that the city’s design contains a
larger building than the remaining buildings, plus a gate
on the east side of the city..

24. • It was observed that the houses on the eastern side were
divided into blocks, each containing 12 houses, 5 meters
long and 5 meters long. Looking at the western side, there are
at least 20 houses, where people live for at least 20 years

25.  Lahoun City
• Lahoun returns to the reign of Senusert II of
the Twelfth Dynasty. The town lies on the banks
of the Nile Canal on the road to Fayoum Oasis.
The city is the home of the workers who built the
pyramid of Senusret with some priests who kept
the royal rite.

26. Flinders Petrie, who discovered the city of Lahoun , said
the streets were designed in an organized manner, as well
as a sewage system to transport dirty residues outside
homes.

27.  Deir el-Medina.
• This town shows relaxation of the rigid planning of the Middle
Kingdom, as does the capital of Egypt during Amunhotep IV’s
(Ahkenaten) reign, Amarna.
• It was found that the design of Deir Al Madina contains the main street and is
surrounded by a wall made of mud bricks. It is decorated on both sides of rows of
houses connected, which is almost a single roof.

28.  Amarna.
Capital of ancient Egypt 1348-1336 BC Akhetaten ,as it was called,
was built on virgin soil
• Estimated population 20000 to 50000.
• The layout divided into 3 areas ,with :
 The main temple and
 The royal palace in the middle
 Three city quarters laid out for development
2D and 3D plan of Amarna

29. 5. The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt
The Egyptian pyramids remain one of the most beautiful
and complex mysteries of the modern world. Set against
the exotic backdrop of the Egyptian desert, these stone
temples hearken our memories back to the days of
pharaohs and mummies.
the Great Pyramid of Giza

30. 6. Technology & Inventions
 Hieroglyphics date back to as early as 3,300 B.C. and were used
 Ancient Egyptians had a great grasp of math and geometry. They
used the geometry to accurately build pyramids, temples and
other buildings.
 They invented door locks that used keys, the first keys used were
up to two feet in length.
 Ancient Egyptians wanted to be hygienic and because the desert
sand caused problems with their teeth, they invented toothpaste
out of eggshells, ox hooves (ground up), ashes, etc.
 Ship building was an important part of their progress. They
started with papyrus reeds in building small boats, and then later
built larger boats and ships out of cedar wood.
 They invented the earliest known paper out of sheets of papyrus.
The word “paper” actually comes from the word “papyrus.”

33. 7 .Planning elements of ancient Egypt
• The planning of Egyptian architects and stone-masons was
meticulous. Some of the identified elements of the period
were:
• Cities as ceremonial centers,
• Pyramid Cities,
• Monumental Avenues,
• Colossal temple plazas,
• compact city, Town classifications- sacred Towns, Trading
Towns, Capitals...Etc.

34. 8. Ancient Egyptian planning principles & characteristics
• It is clear that any planning have the following basic principles
 Comprehensive – all significant options and impacts are
considered.
 Efficient – the process should not waste time or money.
 Inclusive – people affected by the plan have opportunities to
be involved.
 Informative – results are understood by stakeholders (people
affected by a decision).
 Integrated – individual, short-term decisions should support
strategic, long-term goals.
 Logical – each step leads to the next. Transparent – everybody
involved understands how the process operates.

35. When we assess the ancient Egyptian planning with the planning principle we
found the following ancient Egyptian people planning principle to their builds city
1. Proximity to water ways(for buildings)-
2. Height above flood plains(for buildings)
3. Different hierarchy of roads like alleys cul-de-sac etc
4. All structures in the town had common orientations(the Nile acts as an axis)
5. Northing for sun path and prevailing wind direction
6. Use of grid iron pattern
7. City had zoos, gardens and other public buildings.
8. There were sanitarily system like sewerage and drainage
9. The area is divided into suburbs, with the so-called "central city" housing the
Royal Palace and The Great Temple as well as police station and tax offices. The
record office in the city was setup by the women of the city.

36. 9. Lessons learnt from Ancient Egyptians
 The Egyptians are ancient people who had passed through a very wonder full
innovations without using sophisticated technology.
 They used the local materials and local resource as well as local man power
effectively and efficiently. So planning by its very nature appreciates using
locally available resources properly. As planers, we have got the following
lessons how to ;
 form a new settlement proximity to river and the use of grid iron pattern
 Build houses above flood plain
 Design roads in terms of land use
 Layout city, town and building orientation in terms of climatic conditions
 The concept of urban ecology by having zoos, gardens and public spaces in a
town or city
 The concept of segregation(zoning) land use

37.  Practical geometric master plans were unique to Egypt.
 Developed calendar of 12 month which is still in use
 Developed painting styles.
 Sun ken vessel to drain off intensive rain water (which also in use
today is their contribution)
 Burned bricks, red baked bricks.

38. Conclusion
• The various kinds of urban planning at the ancient
ages resulted from more than one reasons. In the case of
Ancient Egypt, we can connect the urban planning with
the actions of ancient pharaohs and the topographical
conditions. And hence the Ancient Egyptians were
practised this system with the orthogonal layout, which
they became very successful.

39. • Geometric master plans were unique to Egypt at this early
date. It proves how Ancient Egyptians improve themselves in
architecture and urbanisation.
• Using such plans created by individual pharaohs were like the
evidence for that improvement. They were also known for
their architcture, local building materials which made their
temples,pyramids and living villages special and their
scientific as well as technological innovations( contributions)
especialy mathematics,medicine and calender for the
conteporary world.so,the ancient Egyptians civilization played
a decisive role for the development of the modern urban
planning,

40. Thank you !!!
Teshager Mengesha