Egyptian Culture And Architecture: The History Of Egypt

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The history of Egypt started around 3000 BCE when the first pharaoh, Menes, united the Upper and Lower Egypt. The Egyptian believed strongly in the life after dead, a fact that influenced their culture and architecture. The greatest kings and pharaohs of the Middle and New Kingdoms were buried in The Valley of the Kings which is located on the cliffs at Deir el-Bahari in western Thebes (modern-day Luxor). Before this event, which changed the history course of Egypt, the most important and greatest personalities of the early dynasties (c.3000-2600) were buried in Mastabas, the earliest tombs, most of them located in Abydos, in honour of their achievements during their lifetime. Those mastabas were the only way in which the Egyptians could preserve …show more content…

600-590 BCE) detached of the earliest ‘houses of the gods’ due to the use of stone columns which sustain better the fired-clay roof tiles, compared to the wooden columns, used for the first time in a small Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. The Greeks adopted the idea from the Egyptian technology system. In Greek architecture the stone columns shafts were quite fluted, a fact that makes it similar to the Hatshepsut’s temple from Egypt.

One of the facts that made the Greek architecture to become unique is the stylized capitals and bases of the columns, in the sixteenth century these methods becoming orders of architecture. Nowadays are well-known that those are a very important part of the Classical architectural language.
During the seventh century, the Greeks started to build bigger and more decorated temples, fact that led them to search the inspiration in the cities of Levant. The orders show the geographic divisions of the Greek in that period of time. The Doric order has as the source of inspiration the proportions of a man; the Ionic columns have been influenced by woman’s proportions and the Corinthian order was determinate by the proportions of a young maiden. The only temple where was used all of the orders is The Temple of Apollo Epicurius, Bassai (ca. 430 …show more content…

Greek and Roman architecture have long been connected due to the similarities between the temples and other types of constructions that those two civilizations created. Roman architecture was highly influenced by Greece but the Romans also diverge to create a separate identity.
Also, both civilizations used in their constructions those three different type of columns: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The Greeks tended to use the less ornate Doric columns in their temples compared with the Roman temples which are usually supported by Corinthian columns.
An important difference between the Greeks and Romans is that they used in their temples different type of materials. The first civilization used marble and granite in construction and the second one, which started to use the arch in design, were able to use brick or even concrete. Moreover, the Greeks used as the support of the roof the post-lintel system. Romans, on the other hand, in their way to perfect the arch started to add different types of decoration which made them stronger than the post-lintel

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