Houses for the Living

The ruins of the vast majority of Egyptian towns having disappeared, it is very difficult to form any idea of the exterior of an ancient Egyptian dwelling-house especially during the Old Kingdom, and we should be quite powerless to do so, were it not for some coffins in the form of houses belonging to the time of the Old Kingdom. If we look at the picture of the coffin of King Menkere which once stood in his pyramid at Gizeh and now lies at the bottom of the Adriatic, we see at the first glance that it represents a house. This house had three doors on the long side and one on the short side ; above each was a latticed window. Graceful little pillars, projecting slightly from the wall, support the beams, on which rests the concave portion of the flat roof. 

Sarcophgus of Menkere

The accompanying illustration represents a coffin of an unknown man, and gives us an example of a model of a house of much simpler construction. The smooth undivided walls are evidently of brick, the recess containing the door alone shows distinct wooden construction. The disposition of the rooms in this house must also have been very different from the above-mentioned luxurious wooden building ; this one has only two doors altogether, the walls of the back of the house and of the two short sides being pierced alone by windows. 

An Old Kingdom coffin

Doubtless the houses were also adorned in this brilliant manner ; each lath, each board, was either painted or gaily figured. The broader piers were, however, hung with carpets, each with its own pattern and its own colour." Such a building would appear most strange under our grey sky, but in the Egyptian sunlight the pretty systematic arrangement of the woodwork and the richness of the colour must have been most effective. All the houses of the rich however were not so highly decorated.

The dimensions of some of these old palaces were very considerable, thus Amten, the great man of the south, with whom we have had so much to do, built a house for himself "two hundred ells long and two hundred broad," a square building therefore, with each side measuring over a hundred yards.The Egyptians preferred to have the doors and windows small and high ; there was a wooden roller at the top of each which served to roll up the mat which hung over the opening.

a New Kingdom house

Let us now pass over the long period of centuries dividing the Old from the New Kingdom, and we shall find that though for this later period we have at our disposal more material than before, yet we are still unable to give a wholly satisfactory picture. The pictures in the Theban tombs, representing the small country houses of Egyptians of rank, instruct us as to the outside of private houses of the time of the New Kingdom.

One of these is a low two-storied building, and like all the houses of this time very bare on the outside. It has smooth white-washed brick walls, and the plain white surface is only varied by the projecting frames of the door and windows.

The ground floor seems to have no windows, but the first story has, in addition to its two windows, a kind of balcony. The roof, above which we can see the trees of the garden behind, is very strange,—it is flat, but has a curious top, which perhaps

a New Kingdom country house

answers to the Mulkuf of the modern Egyptian house ; an oblique construction of boards which catches the cool north wind and conducts it into the upper story of the house.

We see in the Theban wall-picture on the right a country house of the time of the 18th Dynasty; it was not represented on account of its special grandeur, but as being the scene of a home-festival. In the open porch before the house are the vessels of wine, while the food is on tables adorned with garlands ; numerous jars, loaves, and bowls stand close by, hidden by a curtain from the guests who are entering. Whilst the latter greet their host a jar of wine with its embroidered cover is carried past, and two servants in the background, who seem to be of a very thirsty nature, have already seized some drinking bowls. The house itself lies in a corner of the garden, which is planted with dark green foliage trees, figs, and pomegranates, and in which there is also an arbour covered with vines. The garden is surrounded by a wall of brownish brick pierced by two granite doors. Though the house has two stories it strikes us as very small ; it has only one door which, as was customary at that time, is placed at one side of the principal wall and not in the middle. The ground floor seems to be built of brick and to be whitewashed ; it is lighted by three small windows with wooden latticework ; the door has a framework of red granite. The first story is in quite a different style, the walls are made of thin boards, the two windows are large, their frames project a little from the wall and arc closed by brightly coloured mats. This story contains probably the principal room of the house, the room for family life. A curious fact confirms this supposition: the window-hangings have a small square piece cut out at the bottom allowing the women to see out of the windows without themselves being seen. A similar arrangement exists now in modern Egyptian houses.

The roof of the second story rests on little pillars and is open on all sides to the air. Ventilation is much thought of also in the other parts of the house, for the whole of the narrow front is left open and can only be closed by a large curtain of matting. In our picture this is only half drawn up, so as to conceal the interior of the ground floor from the guests. In order to protect this part of the house from the great heat of the Theban sun, a wonderful canopy, borne by six thin blue wooden pillars, is carried over the whole building, and brought forward like a porch in the front of the house. Our picture shows us how this porch was used ; it was the place in which the Egyptians enjoyed the pleasures of life ; here they could breathe the sweet breath of the north wind and enjoy the flowers and trees of the garden.

The above details show plainly that the gentlefolk of  Egypt preferred to live far from the bustle of the world ; this is still more apparent in the case of another house of the same epoch. The gentleman to whom the garden described here belonged had his house hidden in the farthest corner of his garden, behind high leafy trees screening it from inquisitive eyes. People passing on the canal would only see the tops of the trees over the white wall : the simplicity of the house corresponds with its hidden situation. It is a one-storied building with a higher wing something like a tower on the left ; it has plain wooden walls, the only decoration of which consists in the hollow below the roof and the projecting frames and pillars of the windows. Unfortunately the details of the plan are very obscure.

A country house, such as we have described above, cannot be considered as a complete example of the house of an Egyptian gentleman. It is so small that it would be impossible to find room for a large household.

There are no servants' rooms, no storerooms, no kitchens. All these offices, which might be dispensed with in the country, are absolutely necessary in a town house : the number of servants employed in the household of a rich man will alone give us an idea of the size required for his residence.

Source: Erman, Life in ancient Egypt