Gates Charles. Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome

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92 THE NEAR EAST AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

The largest pyramid at Giza, that of Khufu, originally measured ca. 230m × 230m × 146.6m,

but due to some loss of the outer casing blocks it now measures 227m × 227m × 137m. The

four sides rise at an angle of 51.5 degrees. It has been estimated that some 2.3 million blocks

were used, at an average weight of ca. 2.5 tons each, with some weighing as much as 15 tons.

The construction probably continued throughout the entire twenty-three years of Khufu’s reign,

with most of the work undertaken in the late summer and fall during the season of the Nile flood

when farmers were free to work on the building project. Shipped to harbors adjacent to the

pyramid site, the blocks were then dragged into place up earth ramps built around the ever-ris-

ing building. Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian writing 2,000 years after the construction

of these pyramids, stated that the work force consisted of 100,000 men. Modern specialists find

this figure improbably high; 4,000 men at a time seems more credible, with additional workers

performing supporting tasks, such as maintaining equipment and providing food and water.

The second pyramid, that of Khafre, Khufu’s son, is somewhat smaller, originally ca.

215m × 215m × 143.5m, but it stands on higher ground than Khufu’s pyramid and its sides rise

at a slightly steeper angle. A good portion of the limestone casing survives near the top; this gives

some idea of the original finish of the entire monument.

The third of the three main pyramids was erected for Khafre’s brother, Menkaure. It is con-

siderably smaller than the other two, originally 108m × 108m × 66.5m. Casing, in granite, was

provided only for the lowest sixteen courses.

The arrangement of chambers inside these pyramids is complex (Figure 5.13). Khufu’s pyra-

mid has three principal chambers, thought to be the result of changing plans, not an attempt

to confuse would-be thieves. The first chamber was cut into the bedrock, below the lowest

course of the pyramid, and was reached by a descending passage. A second, unfinished chamber,

erroneously called the “Queen’s Chamber,” lies in the lower part of the pyramid proper, and is

reached from a corridor that ascends from the entrance on the north side of the pyramid. The

Figure 5.13 Cross sections, Pyramids of Djoser (at Saqqara), Khufu (at Giza), and Khafre (at Giza)

EGYPT OF THE PYRAMIDS 93

actual burial chamber is located higher up in the pyramid. It is larger (10.8m × 5.2m × 5.8m) and

lined with red granite slabs. Access to this is gained by the Grand Gallery, a dramatic sloping cor-

ridor 47m long and 8.5m high, with a corbelled ceiling. The horizontal passage between the end

of the Grand Gallery and the burial chamber was blocked by three granite plugs, dropped into

place like portcullises, guided by slots in the side walls. These efforts to protect the burial were

in vain. All three pyramids were robbed long ago, probably in the First Intermediate Period. In

Khufu’s burial chamber the only surviving remnant of what must have been a lavish collection

of grave goods was the lidless outer sarcophagus of red Aswan granite.

Along the east and south sides of the Pyramid of Khufu and to the north and south of the

Mortuary Temple of Khafre are several long, deep lenticular pits. Most have been found empty,

but one, on the south side of Khufu’s pyramid, still contained in 1954 a cedar boat, 43m long,

partly dismantled, with a second boat appearing in the 1980s – a monumentalization of the

smaller boats discovered interred outside the funerary enclosure of Khasekhemwy at Abydos.

Such boats may have been used in the funeral procession, with continuing service in the king’s

afterlife. This impressive discovery is now on display in a special museum near its find spot. The

second boat is currently being prepared for display as well.

Temples at Giza: the Valley Temple of Khafre

Each royal pyramid was provided with two temples in which funerary rites were performed.

Gone, it is important to note, are the funerary enclosures of previous dynasties and architec-

tural facilities for the performance of the sed-festival. The two temples both lie on the east side

of the pyramid. Indeed, the linear east–west arrangement of these pyramid-temple complexes

relates to the course of the sun and to the new prominence of the sun god, Re. The furthest east,

on the edge of the zone of cultivation, is known as the Valley Temple. A causeway, or raised

stone-paved road, perhaps an enclosed passage, linked the

Valley Temple with the Mortuary Temple located at the

east base of each pyramid. Final rites took place in this

temple, as did periodic ceremonies thereafter, designed to

maintain the king’s well-being in the afterlife.

The best preserved are the temples of Khafre, accompa-

nied by a unique monument, the Great Sphinx. The Valley

Temple of Khafre measures ca. 45m

, although the north

wall projects out at a diagonal. It was built of large lime-

stone blocks faced with massive ashlar blocks of red gran-

ite from Aswan. Its monolithic pillars were also of granite.

Its walls, still standing 13m high, are battered, that is with a

slightly sloping exterior face, a feature of this period. Inside

the walls were undecorated, but elsewhere, such as in the

mortuary temple at the base of Khufu’s pyramid, some

slight evidence suggests that low reliefs originally deco-

rated the limestone facing.

The king’s titles were carved in a band around each door-

way, the only inscriptions in the building. The entrances led

to high-ceilinged vestibules and then into a long antecham-

ber. A deep pit in its floor contained a virtually complete

statue of Khafre (Figure 5.14), found shattered but now

Figure 5.14 Khafre, seated statue,

from the Valley Temple of Khafre,

Giza. Egyptian Museum, Cairo

94 THE NEAR EAST AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

reassembled in the Cairo Museum, and portions of others. These statues formed a set of twenty-

three, of diorite, schist, and alabaster, which stood in the main room of the temple, the T-shaped

columned hall that lies to the west of the antechamber. Each statue perhaps symbolized one or,

in three cases, two of the twenty-six parts of the king’s body.

The statue of Khafre resembles that of Djoser (Figure 5.10), but there are significant differ-

ences. Khafre, a benign expression on his face, sits stiffly on a high-backed throne, but with both

arms placed on his thighs, the right fist clenched, the left hand open, palm down. Like Djoser

he wears the royal nemes headdress, now deco-

rated with a uraeus or erect cobra, and the royal

beard, but instead of the sed-festival cloak he

wears a royal kilt with a precise pattern of

folds.

This statue, by displaying additional

emblems of the king’s power, shows more

clearly than the statue of Djoser how the king,

the land, and the gods were intertwined. Two

lions, symbols of strength, support his seat.

On each side of the throne, enframed by the

lion’s body, is the motif that represents the

union of the two regions of ancient Egypt: the

hieroglyphic sign for “union,” the knotting

of the two plants that symbolize Lower and

Upper Egypt, the papyrus and the lily. Lastly

and most dramatically, a falcon sits on the top

of the throne, perched behind the king’s head.

This representation of Horus, the sky god,

spreads his wings to either side of the king’s

head in a protective embrace – in addition, a

symbol that the king is the earthly manifesta-

tion of Horus.

A different vision of royalty is given by a

statue found in the Valley Temple of Menkaure

(Figure 5.15). Menkaure stands with his wife

Khamerernebty in the striding pose character-

istic of Egyptian art. Both are about the same

size, somewhat under life-size (the height of

the statue: 1.38m). The king clenches his fists,

while the queen has her arm around her hus-

band. This family portrait shows an idealized

youthful, healthy couple, a vision that subse-

quent Egyptians would often emulate in their

funerary art. The statue, made of slate schist,

was unfinished when placed in the temple, with only the heads and upper bodies completely

polished. Traces of paint indicate that the entire statue was originally painted.

The exact purpose of the Valley Temple is not clear. There are several ceremonies connected

with the preparation of a royal body for burial, known from texts, that possibly were carried out

here. The body was “purified by washing,” a ceremony which assured regeneration. Second, the

Figure 5.15 Menkaure and Khamerernebty, statue

from the Valley Temple of Menkaure, Giza

EGYPT OF THE PYRAMIDS 95

body was embalmed, either actually or symbolically (if the actual embalmment was done else-

where). And third, the “Opening of the Mouth” ceremony was performed, to give life to statues

and other images of the king, so they could serve as homes for the king’s spirit, his ka.

The Mortuary Temple of Khafre

According to traditional interpretation, after the rites in the Valley Temple were completed, the

royal body was taken along the causeway, walled and covered to protect the purified body from

contamination, to the Mortuary Temple, located at the east base of the pyramid. Final funeral

rites were performed here. In addition, the temple offered access to the narrow terrace on which

the pyramid stood, enclosed by a wall. But Dieter Arnold, supported by Mark Lehner, now

questions this view on practical grounds: rooms, doorways, and corridors seem too small for the

funeral procession to pass. Instead, the royal body would have been brought into the pyramid by

a more direct route. Arnold then speculates about the function of mortuary temples. In addition

to their ritual purpose, whatever that was, these buildings may also have served as a symbolic

royal residence, because their layout corresponds, albeit in a very loose way, to that of certain

later palaces and mansions.

The Mortuary Temple of Khafre is poorly preserved. It measures 110m × 45m. Like the

Valley Temple, it was made of a limestone core faced with granite. Its ground plan displays for

the first time the five elements that will be standard in royal mortuary temples of the rest of

the Old Kingdom: 1) entrance hall; 2) colonnaded court; 3) statue chamber, typically with five

niches for five statues; 4) magazines, or storerooms; and 5) the sanctuary, a tiny room at the rear.

The sanctuary contained a stele carved with a false door. Through this, the ka would emerge

from the pyramid, and sample the offerings placed daily on the low altar in front of the false

door.

The Great Sphinx

The colossal image of a sphinx, 73.2m long and 19.8m high, stands next to the Valley Temple

of Khafre (Figure 5.11). It was carved out of the limestone bedrock during the Fourth Dynasty.

In later periods, perhaps in the Eighteenth Dynasty and during the Roman Empire, parts were

shored up with masonry. In addition to these restorations, remains of chapels and stelai have

emerged during explorations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For example, a small

ruined temple of the Fourth Dynasty was discovered in front of the paws of the Sphinx.

The Great Sphinx is unique. Such statues do not normally form part of a pyramid complex.

The term “sphinx,” a Greek word, perhaps deriving from the Egyptian for “living image,” shesep

ankh, denotes a composite creature with a lion’s body and a human head. Here, the head wears

royal accoutrements: the nemes headdress with the uraeus on the forehead and a false beard

(now gone). The face has been damaged, notably the nose, but may be a portrait of Khafre. It

could also represent a guardian deity of this necropolis, since a lion was believed to stand watch

at the gates of the underworld.

Sand accumulating around the Great Sphinx has had to be cleared periodically, in ancient as

well as modern times. In his detailed account of Egypt, Herodotus did not mention the Sphinx;

perhaps in his day, the fifth century BC, it was completely buried in sand. The most interesting

clearing took place in the Eighteenth Dynasty, a story recounted on a gray granite stele discov-

ered in 1816–17 in front of the Sphinx. Thutmose IV, while still a prince, was resting in its shade

during a hunting expedition. In a dream, the Sphinx promised him the throne if he would clear

96 THE NEAR EAST AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

the Sphinx of sand. Thutmose IV did so, and after he became king, he built a temple here and set

up the commemorative stele mentioned above.

THE SUN TEMPLE OF NIUSERRE AT ABU GURAB

The sun god Re rose to prominence in the Fourth Dynasty, a position he would continue to hold

in the Middle and New Kingdoms. The cult of Re originated at Heliopolis on the east bank of

the Nile (now in the northern suburbs of Cairo), but six of the kings of the Fifth Dynasty con-

structed special temples to Re on the west bank. The best preserved is that built by the pharaoh

Niuserre at Abu Gurab, just north of Abu Sir where he and most kings of his line built their

pyramids. The temple may have been constructed during the period 2430–2400 BC, but as with

all Egyptian chronology, the dating is subject to controversy.

The Sun Temple of Niuserre contrasts with the funerary temples already discussed, and with

the cult temples at Luxor and Karnak that will be examined in the next chapter. Worship of the

sun god was typically done in the open air, not in the small dark rooms in which other gods were

reverently housed.

The temple, constructed entirely of limestone, sits on an artificial mound, itself faced with

limestone (Figure 5.16). From a pavilion lying to the east an enclosed causeway led to the temple.

The temple consisted of an open-air court, 100.5m × 76.2m, oriented east–west in accordance

with the path of the sun. The walls of the surrounding portico were decorated with painted

reliefs depicting miscellaneous subjects, most not specifically illustrating the cult: the king at

his sed-festival, the king trampling his enemies, various plants and animals, etc. Reliefs of the

seasons may, however, relate to the life-giving force of the sun. In the west side of the open air

Figure 5.16 Sun Temple of Niuserre (reconstruction), from Abu Gurab

EGYPT OF THE PYRAMIDS 97

court stood the great solar symbol, a squat obelisk built of limestone blocks set on a rectangular

podium. The court also included an area for the slaughtering of animals, the sacrificial offerings;

an altar, exposed to the sun; and storerooms. Directly outside the temple, to the south, a solar

boat was erected, out of brick, oddly enough.

The word “obelisk” comes from Greek and means “little roasting-spit,” but the function was

purely Egyptian. These pillars represented the first place the sun landed on earth. The original

obelisk was the benben, “the radiant one,” a stone venerated at Heliopolis; it may have represented

the first ray of light to touch the earth at the moment of creation. The obelisk that once stood at

Abu Gurab imitated this prototype. Especially in the taller, elongated version current in the New

Kingdom, the obelisk would become a distinctive element of ancient Egyptian architecture.

Although Re and obelisks continued in popularity, the Sun Temples as seen at Abu Gurab did

not outlive the Fifth Dynasty. Of course, to construct such a temple in addition to a pyramid and

its funerary temples must have been extremely expensive. Of greater significance may have been

a shift in cult focus, with the increasing importance of the cult of Osiris, centered in Abydos.

THE FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD

During the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, the power of regional officials gradually increased at the

expense of the central authority in Memphis. In what is known as the First Intermediate Period,

political instability became acute as weak royal families, jockeying for power with provincial gov-

ernors, ruled over truncated sections of the country. Conditions did not favor achievements in

architecture and literature; these would re-emerge only with the ascendancy of the city of Thebes

in the Eleventh Dynasty and the eventual restoration of a strong centralized power by the king

Mentuhotep II.

CHAPTER 6

Egyptian cities, temples, and tombs

of the second millennium BC

Although never dominant in the archaeological record of dynastic Egypt, cities do come into

better focus during the second millennium BC, in contrast with earlier times. The best known is

Akhetaten, modern Tell el-Amarna, created as a new capital in the fourteenth century BC. We shall

also examine Kahun, a Middle Kingdom town, and Thebes, the administrative center of Upper

Egypt during the New Kingdom, at least for the monumental temples and tombs built in its

environs. Finally, this chapter will introduce two sites from Nubia, the frontier region south of

Aswan: first, Buhen, a fortress from the Middle Kingdom, and second, Abu Simbel, famous for its

Temple of Ramses II.

THE MIDDLE KINGDOM

Although the Middle Kingdom lasted far less time than either the Old or the New Kingdom, it

was an important period for ancient Egyptian civilization. In this era of renewed power of the

ruler, the Egyptian language reached its finest flowering and literature flourished. So too did arts

and crafts, notably sculpture and jewelry. Evidence for cities during this period is sporadic, the

result, as noted in the previous chapter, of the difficulty of access to the remains, not because of

lack of settlements. The rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty shifted their capital from Thebes in the

Middle Kingdom: ca. 2060–1795 BC

Eleventh (later) to Twelfth Dynasties

Second Intermediate period: ca. 1795–1550

Thirteenth to Seventeenth Dynasties

New Kingdom: ca. 1550–1070

Eighteenth Dynasty: ca. 1550–1295

Nineteenth Dynasty: ca. 1295–1186 BC

Twentieth Dynasty: ca. 1186–1070 BC

Third Intermediate period: ca. 1070–715 BC

Twenty-first to Twenty-fourth Dynasties

Late Period: 760–332

Twenty-fifth to Thirtieth Dynasties and

the second Persian occupation

Alexander the Great conquers Egypt: 332

EGYPTIAN CITIES, TEMPLES, AND TOMBS 99

south to Itj-Tawy (“seizer of the two lands”) possibly at Lisht, near Memphis. Little is known of

this city, largely buried deep under Nile silt. More important in the archaeological record are the

“pyramid town” of Kahun and the forts erected on the Nubian frontier, of which Buhen is an

excellent example.

Kahun

The neatly planned Middle Kingdom town of Kahun (modern name) was built near the entrance

to the Faiyum (a large, fertile depression connected to the Nile, south-west of modern Cairo) in

order to house the builders of the nearby pyramid of King Senwosret II (ruled ca. 1880–1872

BC) and the priests, soldiers, officials, and other personnel who would maintain the monument

and the cult of the deceased king. Kahun is by far the largest of the “pyramid towns.” Its size

suggests that it functioned not simply as a specialized center devoted to the pyramid and its

mortuary cults, but as a regular town with a variety of activities, such as agriculture, regional

economic responsibilities, and construction projects. Lying on the edge of the desert away from

farmlands and modern habitation, the town proved accessible to archaeologists; about half the

town was excavated in the late nineteenth century by British Egyptologist Sir William Flinders

Petrie. Although the mud brick walls had disintegrated, house foundations were well preserved,

allowing an appreciation of the town’s layout.

The plan of this specially founded “pyramid town” is regular (Figure 6.1). Inside a nearly

square area, 384m × 335m, straight streets cross at right angles, in an orthogonal grid. In the

main north/north-east section, approximately twenty large houses were identified, measuring ca.

60m × 42m, each with a plain wall and door onto the street but sharing walls with its neighbors.

Inside, houses include reception and residential rooms, a garden with a shaded portico, and large

Figure 6.1 Town plan, Kahun

100 THE NEAR EAST AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

granaries for food storage; details of their appearance and decoration are furnished by house

models recovered from Middle Kingdom tombs. The smaller section of Kahun, separated from

the larger by a wall, contained some 220 small houses, also arranged on straight streets. These

house plans varied considerably, but unlike the large houses, they rarely included granaries. The

social and economic structure of the town, understood from finds of papyrus documents as

well as from the house remains, depended on top bureaucrats who inhabited the large houses,

maintained retinues of clients and servants (who lived in the small houses), and controlled the

distribution of food from their large granaries. The ruins of Kahun impart the impression of

a well-regulated society – which all evidence indicates was indeed the central characteristic of

Middle Kingdom Egypt.

Buhen

The fortress at Buhen, in Nubia (the region along the Nile from Aswan to Khartoum), is a good

example of the strongholds the Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom erected on their southern

frontier. Excavated by W. B. Emery and others during the salvage campaign that accompanied

the construction of the High Dam at Aswan, the ruins were subsequently flooded by the lake

that formed behind the dam.

The Egyptians had two frontier zones over which they kept watch: the north, opening both

westwards toward Libya and eastwards toward south-west Asia, and the south, beyond the First

Cataract, leading up the Nile into central Africa. At various points in Egyptian history, peoples from

the outside attempted to enter Egypt through these corridors. Sometimes they succeeded. The

Egyptians had another reason to patrol the southern border region. Central Africa was a source for

precious metals and exotic raw materials, and the Egyptians did not want this trade disrupted.

The fort at Buhen was built early in the twentieth century BC, one of several forts along the Nile

north of the Second Cataract. The plan consisted of an inner citadel, an open yard, and a massive

outer fortification wall of mud brick, 5m thick, originally 8m–9m in height. The inner citadel

(150m × 138m), itself walled, featured buildings of mud brick, with stone and wood details neatly

arranged in a grid plan, a regular layout that brings to mind Roman military camps of nearly 2,000

years later (Figure 6.2). Functions included garrison reception rooms, housing, storerooms, and

Figure 6.2 Plan, the Citadel, Buhen

EGYPTIAN CITIES, TEMPLES, AND TOMBS 101

a possible temple. Two gates opened onto the river, the northernmost protecting a stone-lined

channel that could supply river water in times of siege. The outer fortifications contained one

gateway only, a passageway lined with parallel walls and towers that opened toward the western

desert. The wall itself consisted of, in cross section from the exterior to the interior, a ditch, an

outer parapet wall with arrow slits, a rampart or walkway, and the main wall, with crenellations

on top (Figure 6.3). The indentations in the architecture recall the Mesopotamian-influenced

design of the walls of tombs and towns in Early Dynastic Egypt, a method of decoration consid-

ered appropriate for mud brick regardless of the purpose, funerary, civil, or military.

SECOND INTERMEDIATE PERIOD

With the breakdown of central authority at the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, control over Egypt

devolved once again on regional rulers. Of the five dynasties that make up this period, three

were native Egyptian, two were foreign. The two foreign dynasties, Fifteenth and Sixteenth, are

of particular interest, people from south-west Asia who settled in the eastern Delta, eventually

establishing a separate kingdom there, with their capital at Avaris (modern Tell el-Dab’a), a city

already in place from the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom. They are known

as the Hyksos, a Greek term deriving from an Egyptian phrase meaning “princes of foreign

countries.” To them are attributed the introduction into Egypt of the horse and chariot, the

composite bow, and the vertical loom. The discovery in 1991 of Minoan-style wall paintings at

Avaris indicates stronger links with the Aegean region than heretofore suspected.

Eventually the native rulers in Upper Egypt mustered the strength to challenge the Hyksos.

Under the leadership of Amosis (Ahmose), the Egyptians defeated these immigrants and drove

Figure 6.3 Outer fortification wall (after excavation), Buhen