Most homes and villages were set on high ground to protect them from the inundation. Settlements in low-lying areas were surrounded by dams and berms (a wall of earth) that required constant inspection and maintenance, lest water flood in.
Good-quality timber had to be imported, and building with stone was expensive and labor-intensive. Limestone, granite, massive wooden
Pillars, and other expensive, durable materials were reserved for homes for the dead and homes for the gods.
Houses and other buildings for the living, from peasant’s hut to king’s palace, were built of mud-brick: clay-heavy mud from the Nile, mixed with chopped straw or sand and dried in the sun. By 3000 B. C.E., Egyptian builders were already expert mud-brick builders. They had even standardized brick sizes and shapes. The Egyptians knew how to fire bricks in a kiln. But sun drying was so easy and efficient, and made such strong, durable materials, they saw no need to go to the extra trouble. Sun-dried mud-brick was cheap, versatile, readily available, and could be worked quickly into structures of any size. In the hot, dry climate, mud-brick buildings lasted several generations.
_ Home for a peasant farmer or
Workman was just a few small
Rooms. At sites of major public projects, like the Giza plateau during the Fourth Dynasty pyramid age, the government built “workers’ villages”: rows or terraces of simple houses, much like the row houses in New England factory towns of the 1800s.
The typical home, humble or grand, followed a model still common in Egypt and other hot climates. To the street, the home presented a blank wall with a door. A visitor passed through a reception area before reaching a courtyard that was open to the sky.
Several rooms surrounded the courtyard. The most private ones were reserved for the women. The arrangement, size, number, furnishings, and decorations of rooms varied greatly, according to homeowner’s wealth, status, and taste. Some homes had a second story or additional courtyards. Flat roofs
World History
