Join us to explore the roofs of ancient civilizations including greek chinese persian and egyptian.
Styles of roofs used in ancient egypt.
The two principal building materials used in ancient egypt were unbaked mud brick and stone.
Mastabas were the standard type of tomb in the earliest dynasties.
The ancient egyptian first lived in reed houses and later switched to unbaked mud brick which was used even on palaces.
From the old kingdom onward stone was generally used for tombs the eternal dwellings of the dead and for temples the eternal houses of the gods.
The prehistoric greeks used thatch roofs with overhanging eaves supported by dried clay bricks.
Ancient egyptian construction and architecture.
Due to the scarcity of wood the two predominant building materials used in ancient egypt were sun baked mud brick and stone mainly limestone but also sandstone and granite in considerable quantities.
Mud brick remained the domestic material used even for royal palaces.
The eaves were long enough that they could protect the mud bricks from the rain.
Ancient egypt itself dates back to roughly 3150 bce.
However ancient egyptian architecture did not become what we think of today until roughly 2649 bce structures that survived the old kingdom which lasted until about 2150 bce include mastabas the great pyramids and the great sphinx all of these structures were built from stone.
Mud clay rock and reed were the only materials that were in abundance.
These flat roofed rectangular superstructures had sides constructed at first from mud brick and later of stone in the form of paneled niches painted white and decorated with elaborate matting designs.
History of ancient egyptian architecture.
The roofs of ancient greece.