Architecture History: Egypt Architecture / Egyptian Pyramids & Temples [University Online Lecture]

This is probably the most famous one from the ancient times, right? So I think you've seen that in some movies already And probably you know all about these pyramids Because they're so abstract and people even say was built by aliens, right? But as you will see today the pyramid was developed it not just happened. So I don't believe it's made by aliens So first of all, where are we? So the blue circle On the map is where we are today. So the one on the bottom the most bottom left circle or oval That's actually the area around the river called neil the neil. Maybe you have heard that already and The blue circle is where it is And if we zoom in a bit we see in the timeline the egyptian one is really like it has north and south egypt But still it's kind of one empire, which is more or less continuously decidable in three big kingdoms and This is like one big kingdom that were aware of their own Kingdomness because they see themselves as a kingdom Unlike the other two high cultures. So and here you see the timeline. So We divide it roughly as I said into three kingdoms old middle and new kingdom. So easy to remember You it's enough when you remember that it went from 2700 until 1000 before christ and that you can divide it into three Kingdoms if you want to read more I put the wikipedia article is actually quite good That's why I linked it there wikipedia is not always reliable, right because it's not written by experts. So it's just Yeah, everybody can edit it. But actually this article I read I had a look into it and I found it quite good So I put it there and you see There was like the blue bars are like intermediate period So it was shortly interrupted basically when one far off spent too much money and the country got bankrupt So on the yellow ones on the bar on the top of the page are the high the called golden ages so like the interesting period so the old the middle and the new kingdom and The pyramids actually were developed in the early times. So interesting enough. They came up around 2650 so just after the the old empire kind of started and they were developed as I explained today, but They would just happen in that old empire and they were actually too expensive So also the first real pyramids after a few starts the pyramids of giza are around 2550 so the biggest ones are the first and they actually make the state and they're like finally bankrupt, so Yeah, and they were something too expensive. So that's why the later Kingdoms they also build some pyramids But smaller ones and not so many and they're not so famous and many also not preserved because they were smaller But the first ones were actually the biggest and they also happen in the old kingdom And the first one so I will explain that they're usually around 2650 until 2200 something they were built um okay, and This is the map where neil is Where the neil is so it goes linear from the north and to the south And you can make a division there between the upper and the southern northern and the southern egypt So that's where the dash line is then south of dashu But because the delta has more more fruitful land and um The cities basically go south from from the from the ocean down to the from the mediterranean sea actually to the um Yeah down the river. So That's why we found all the pyramids Next to the river and the pyramids are mostly on the west because that's where the sun sets So and the people believe the king should be buried. It's a grave. The pyramid is a grave monument, right? That's for the grave of the king. It's not a temple. It's a grave monument So they are all built on the west of the near because that's the site where the sun set So that's why the king should be buried on that side and not on the east so and Yeah, this is how a pyramid look like but As you can see this is just a modern inspiration the famous one in the louvre in france, right designed by yuming pei and 20th century And that's the real one. So these are the most famous ones the pyramids of giza so Actually, the largest is the right one. It just looks smaller. The largest is on the right and It's also the oldest And this is this is what I call the abstract Shape, I will explain that further later And overall if we go to the stylistics we have an interesting Again, like antagonism. So antagonism is when two things stand opposite but at the same time. So when it's antagonistic between 15th and 18th century we can also call it antagonistic, but it's not so interesting It's interesting when the same tendencies exist at the same time, right? And in egypt they have this what I call geometric Shapes in a second. I will speak about geometric and organic as a term in architecture And geometric shapes which are really this form of abstraction I will explain later also why I think this is like a symbol for intelligence I will explain that together with how I believe the the egyptian people also thought about it So I think that's their thoughts as well So the purer it is the more you derive how you say you develop it until Kind of the peak in the end one sentence comes out, right? The essence of for example what you've done yesterday or of the shape. So in this case the shape They have this obelisk as a symbol And this kind of needle-like monument. It's just a monument and the pyramid Then as an abstract shape as well and also the the columns now, it's funny the columns We have this kind of what we call tectonic tectonic is on the left when actually you show the forces in the building elements so you show that That the force from the beam was brought to the ground That's actually the idea of the force of the ceiling or the roof are brought to the ground via a column And you show this in the column then you call it tectonic So that's under the gray ones in the middle of that slide Okay, so in the middle of the slide you see the tectonic Not slides the tectonic columns They show how the forces go from the Roof the ceiling or the beam to the ground And on the right side are this the columns that are more likely used in egypt. They're actually organic. That means they use flower-like like Vegetan call a vegetan like vegetarian, but vegetan Ornament decorated so that comes from the flowers, which is a bit untypical that they do it on the columns But the they use it as a decoration so as you see on the right and um So they have both but mostly we have these so-called papyrus columns and they also add the organic. So the from the nature coming ornament on to Yeah, they're onto nearly everything. So on the right side you see a lot of top of a building They call it. He gives him so the the very bottom picture on the right side of the slide It's like the the top ending of an oven pilon in this case And they design it like an organic way and also the decoration that you see there um Is added onto the tape onto the geometric form So they first usually create a geometric form and then add the organic decoration on it in egypt. I will show that soon in the photo But first I want to talk roughly about these two terms because they're often used geometric and organic architecture So that's why I call it excursus that means we talk shortly about it for three minutes and then I go back so the left Side is geometric architecture And you put has a modern house there from le corbusier and the pyramids and then actually what they call the platonic Solids in the middle. I will explain them later together with the pyramids. So this geometric It means it's an abstraction that we actually cannot find like this in nature And then actually people came and say yeah But it's two houses also like this and as we know the very early houses like the oval houses They are actually more nature-like and it took a way of abstraction Uh, I call the first architectonic revolution when a roundish house oval house became rectangular Because rectangular shapes you can add easily onto each other You can put something on the wall and they are easy for planning, but they don't appear like this in nature So this is really like a first task of human mind to create rectangular floor plans So geometric for me architecture is the opposite of nature because we can live in the forest, but the human is not enough So a human condition is not good enough. It's not enough to live in the nature So we need architecture the third skin, right? So an animal can live in the nature and have the fur But we are naked we have just the skin. So we put the second skin like animals fur actually we use animal fur nowadays cotton or whatever or even chemistry first To cover our bodies and then we build architecture as we call the third skin. So and it's it's artificial. It's not nature So for me architecture is kind of the opposite than nature and it should be it's a cultural product For example in landscape architecture, we divide into nature space and culture space culture space or culture culture landscape is everything influenced by human so When we build a footpath in the in the forest, it's also culture space because we build the the walkway Or we we cut the tree then it's also already man influence. It's not natural anymore So and then there were people that the pictures on the right side are example that said naia but let's let's build like the nature Is let's imitate it. So the house on the bottom is a bit the cute maybe funny example, but there are actually plenty not too many but some famous or less famous ones Where people imitate Yeah nature by building these shapes. So they this is what but most commonly The term organic architecture is used for um, but I disagree with that because for me this architecture is not organic because it's a not grown By itself b it cannot move. It's it's like static, right? You build it maybe in concrete or stone, but you can Kick your foot against it and it will not move one centimeter. So it's It's not movable at all. It's not flexible Number c this is the main one. It doesn't develop. I mean you actually can separate like living and dead objects right by Saying the living objects change so they either grow or die so they become bigger or smaller So that's why you people also say when you when you're too boring and just sit at home You kind of die inside because you're not developing you're not growing So every tree every leaf grows and develops. So this for me the main criterion about nature It evolves by itself and it's changing and organic architecture Even like modern ones building concrete look very they can look like nature But they just imitate the form and finally it's static. It will not move. It will not change one centimeter over 200 years so that's why I find First I disagree with the term and second also a bit with the idea because we just imitate the shape of nature But it's not nature. It's still the same static like on the left side or the geometric architecture By the way, the term geometric is not so common. Organic is a common term to describe that But I find the term wrong, but still it's the common term geometric It's just you don't call it an organic architecture, right? Because all architectures as I said inorganic So let's use these terms geometric organic here. I put my beloved Louis Kahn again Are you sure I showed them to you last semester? So he really used the basic geometric shapes like close to the platonic solids square circle and And how you call like a like, um, yeah this kind of solid platonic shapes So simple geometric shapes and add them together On the right side is a famous and maybe Quite how you say turned out to be quite good Building of what they call organic architecture. So the architect that's mostly linked with that in a successful way So not just these cute houses there on the countryside Is Hans Sharon you see on the right side his name And he's linked with that Probably most than more than the other architects also Frank Lloyd Wright built houses and sometimes linked with that name and you see Gaudi on this slide before the church was from Gaudi, but he said also Yeah architecture should be like nature and organized. So this is a concert hall in Berlin and you see um The floor plan is still symmetric of this concert hall, but it's like it should be like in the wine hill So it should be like like nature plates around the orchestra and Also on the floor plans on the right on the top right side. You see it better as a private house So he didn't build it like on the left side. You see rectangles and squares and circles This is louis kahn again on the left and on the right of my slide you see in the top right corner House, I think this represents a bit organic So every cell is different. Every apartment is different the house that the walls are Mainly not parallel, but you see already in the bedrooms He made them parallel because you need to put the furnitures and the store and the closet in the bed But wherever he can like in the living room and so on the walls are not rectangular But I don't know if this is more functional than the rectangular ones I think not but he kind of imitate want to try a nature made Floor plan so he want to imitate the nature by that. But actually in my opinion, yeah, it's still a Fixed I mean once it's built. It's static. It's not moving. It will not develop It will always stay like that until you demolish it and it's built in concrete So it's not nature, but it imitate the shape of the nature and the better version It's both the same architects on the right side the house in berlin. I think designed apartment house by charron and He built in germany a lot and on the left the better one. So the concert hall is kind of good example I would say this also sounds very good by the way the philharmonic in berlin uh Yeah, it's symmetric as you see in the floor plan, but it should be built organically around the orchestra So that was the idea in the 1950s the philharmonic in berlin Yeah, so left organic, right? Uh left geometric on the right side organic or what people call organic architecture. What's the common term for that? And this is my opinion the only way how really organic architecture could look like this is the smurf village You know the smurfs maybe or not German we call it schlimpfe And so this organic architecture I assume that these houses should not be built if they're built in concrete by the smurfs then There's also not organic, but I assume I assume this should be real mushrooms So they're actually living in mushrooms, right these little blue smurfs If they do so this is organic architecture But there you see already the problem that actually if the if the mushroom dies or become bigger or smaller The window will fall out you see they put windows and doors in the mushroom, which are man-made already. So it's like Yeah, it's like a chain that they already influence the nature form of the mushrooms And if the mushroom dies or grows the window will not work anymore on the door also So you have a problem already and on the right side I put that picture. I think it's from minecraft Kind of a computer game. I don't know that game, but here's a bit funny because they kind of imitate this organic mushroom with a Cubic form so there you see already for me architecture is always kind of I don't know it makes more sense of its geometric But this would be real organic architecture in my opinion if it was real mushroom that you live in So and but actually for the cities it works. Yeah, I said last time already. I believe organic Urban design exists because you have and this is from my last lecture because even the earliest time in mesopotamia. We have both We have on the right side the organically growing city So this I will call organic because the elements are also houses. They are inorganic. They're static but And the city is not planned. So it has this overall shape over. Sorry overall oval shape An oval shape that actually it's kind of just happened a bit It's not planned and also elements are added like kind of planless and even streets and this is this is a very one of the very earliest city in the south of mesopotamia, right in the uh in the Sumerian where the sumer lived And in mesopotamia we had both so on the left side as I explained last time is a floor plan of the Of the ideal city dua sharuqin in the north and the assyrian So the assyrian people built that which is planned. It has a square shape. It's a nearly perfect square and they put intentionally the government buildings and the and the Near the wall so outside of the city They thought it's more safe to defend it than to defend the building and the city together When it's not in the middle and they planned the cities and they also built the sub Sorry, they planned the streets as a grid And they planned the neighborhood. So everything is planned. So this I would call geometric again So in urban design indeed, I would I would say you have both you have geometric planned cities And I would use like to use the term organic because it's grown unplanned For urban design and here you see also in some screenshots from current google earth The american cities usually follow the same principle, this is washington dc, but It was invented in the 18th century. I think by a french called a long phone with family name. What's his given name? Charles long phone. I forgot charles long phone Uh, his family name was long phone So he was asked to design washington and he invented this what I call american system so You first connect the important points with linear streets And then you put actually a grid of squares nearly squares or rectangulars Of they call them avenue and street right and then count them one two, three, four five avenue one two, three, four five street Over it. So they put this rectangular grid nearly on every city in america. So that's geometric or planned city and they do it with every city even if it matched the the topography or not and In other countries you still have both like in europe in many cities You have geometric and on the right side is a screenshot from google earth from a german small city and the middle of germany Where you where I think you can see quite well how it's kind of grown around main exits a bit like a leaf, right? It's grown from the center up the hill and then first the the main street grows and then to the side There are sub streets growing. I think you can find even more organic ones, but this is it's just kind of happened It was not planned as a whole, right? So this term geometric organic I would use for City planning I think for urban design. They make sense for architecture Not so much my opinion So but that's just my opinion. So back to egypt. They had At least tectonic elements and then covered them with organic forms Uh first I'll show you this one because it's so good example um So on the left side is is this kind of abstract this kind of conic very very stable Form, right? Also, it's it's axial. It's symmetric. It's very monumental already on the left side Um, but it has this overall abstract form geometrized geometrized, yeah and then it's The the ornament is laid over it. So it's it's this kind of sunken relief we call it So it's like it's craved inside the stone And some are hiru glues these symbols some are just flowery elements And they're just like like a pattern all over on the right side in this small box It's a part of a temple in karnak. You also You can also see it. It's this very simple block and then The ornament is carved inside the stone and back to this slide here you see The strengths also and besides this geometric form and this they're very calm, you know, they're very abstract but in the simpleness also very calm So they always have as you see on the on the bottom of the temple and the horus temple in ethu you see A horizontal surrounding wall that surrounds the whole complex That's yeah kind of laying right and has very static calm appearance That's is in contrast to the vertical but also because of the conic shape also um Very calm and heavy shape, right? It's not a light structure. It's vertical, but it's not Flying or something it lays very heavily the the two entrance polygons that the propylene that actually always Mark there nearly always mark the entrance of the temple complex So you have this contrast of the horizontal and the vertical forms and both is very calm and And yeah abstract so and that's why monumental And also on the picture on the top the duos are complex. You see it again. You see a Preform of the pyramid in this case is ziggurat Again, like the ziggurat in mesopotamia, but not as a temple, but just a shape so well, we also call them ziggurat, so And it was a grave monument the vertical shape and its contrast with the Long horizontal line. So This is very monumental very calm a bit heavy, but I find also timeless very timeless beautiful heavy monumental forms So and yeah this one I had already Yeah for urban design. So the next two or three topics are urban design and palaces It's not so interesting It's I make this a bit shorter because I want to have more time for the pyramids and for the second part of the presentation First of all, the the sacred buildings like pyramids are built in stone. That's why they're preserved but actually Like these cities and private houses and also even king palaces were built in clay and wood That's why they're already gone. They are taken away by the river basically over the centuries So there's nothing much left we can find so we don't really know how the palaces and everything look like so well We can just assume but the pyramids and the sacred architecture so for the gods for the spiritual side Was built in stone so in a different material because it should be timeless So they are preserved so and the cities as well. This taban is not preserved. Well, we just assume it was like geometric Planned not surprising when you look on the other architecture that they planned their cities. Well, unlike for example in the aegean culture um And it's actually planned very well. It has even water in the middle like that That brings that makes the climate in the city better Surrounded by the rivers as cities are mostly And has a rectangular grid and the representative buildings the three in the center And here it's even further they plan like ideal ideal city center I don't want to talk too long about that and these are like Private houses as we assume that they look like on the right side. You see quite luxury already version of a villa But from these as I said, we're building clay It's not much left so we can just kind of guess and we we we they are not preserved basically So they are sunken and gone while the sacred architecture remains So I want to talk more about that. That's how we assume a palace looked like so a very large complex very representative with Yeah, I mean that the pharaoh was seen as a living god as I said so there's a mixture in egypt between the spiritual side the gods and The reality so the pharaoh was kind of seen the pharaoh was the highest king, right? Seen as a living god and when he dies he became he become a god So that's why the palace should of course represent this very high status in this quite hierarchical society So you see it's symmetric as axial Symmetry in the in the number two is in the middle hall and then apartments to the side and it's organized representatively But as I said, not not preserved so I can't show you any pictures But the temples they're more interesting. So I want to focus on that. This is the first one in karnak It's a big complex, which is quite well preserved. So you see a picture here. There's a photo, right? and um Yeah, it's uh, well preserved and because it's built in stone. So and um The great thing about this one is mainly what they call the hypostyle or hypostule how they said that time It's basically like I put on the floor plan on the right. It's basically a dark a dark hall With a lot of these kind of papyrus columns And you see on the picture on the left how large they are So the roof is gone, but the the columns are there so you'd have to imagine there was a roof over it You can see it was a dark There was no natural light in it a dark Column hall that you have to walk through from the entrance to the next section So they were always like the temples were very designed sequences of bright and dark spaces And just in the middle the columns are bigger, right? They're taller to mark the middle line the symmetry And there's a light coming from the top of the two sides as you see in the section on the left side so the light coming in and Showing the way where you have to walk through but this kind of light as you can imagine to the left and the side Became darker and darker and darker. So it's kind of a column forest This was just just like very monumental and and representative maybe make you a little bit fear when you walk through But that's the kind of feeling of respect that you people should have towards the godness, right? It's a temple for for the gods so um That means this it's a very uh Very representative and strong gesture there this kind of hypostyle It's kind of a hall full of columns Yeah, and you walk through the middle where you can see a little bit through the windows But also not too much should be quite dark as well the whole room yeah, and um This is how it looks now and again in the columns are carved the the hieroglyphs the symbol As a relief inside so this contrast of this very heavy architecture and this very vegetan so floral ornament On the top And that's the floor plan. So that's all the same temple. We're just zooming in from the left That's the overview of the karnak temple And you see there's two entrances you see how huge it is like one one kilometer in the square You see that's the hundred meter scale So in one of these halls that for example, the hypostyle is already 120 meters in the horizontal dimension And around I think 80 or 70 in the in the second dimension. So it's it's the same flop flow plan this one, right? and um You see also the height in the comparison. That's like how high is that one? This is a human 20 30 meters. I don't know. So they're really huge and So we're zooming in on the left and then on the top right is a zoom in through the whole Main temple and on the bottom right is a zoom in again on the main Core, and that's what I actually palmy. Are you there? I mentioned the last presentation of palmy. Uh, And the final presentation of semester one They like these sequences and remember how palmy's pavilion led through the dark into the bright and and back This pavilion at the canal So I mentioned to palmy in the final presentation look on the egyptian temples. I mean, for example this one So when you look on the top right side, you see very well how start with a dense space Where where you go through the very thick entrance wall, right where the one is written Through open hall, but it has columns on the side And through a small pre Pre-chamber like a pre-room and now the top right on the top right slide Part of the slide then a very small one And then it's big again. You you arrive in the hippo style in this kind of endless space of columns And it becomes small again, and then you're outside again at the courtyard so you have a sequence always outside inside bright and big and dark and small rooms and sometimes also bright and Narrow and so you really have a sequence of spaces, but but but boy you got brought through That's why I mentioned to palmy. So it's really like like a storytelling. I really like this and it's all axial It's all on one line So you never have to go left or right you come in at the front On the left side of a drawing and you go one one one one one until then it becomes more small and small and small And on the end you end up in the what is dark red. So this is the most holy temple So this is the sacred Kernel, so the core that's actually quite small, right? um And there you got like you've got a focus so from the very big When you look on the top right side of my slide again in a very big courtyard It kind of focus your attention to the hypostasis another courtyard smaller smaller smaller smaller and then and like human like scale Maybe there's a six meters wide or something human like scale of the very core And this is surrounded again by small courtyards. You see the small yellow ones So you're on another scale so it's really like very representative sequence bringing you through the entrance So this is a great I think a great floor plan a great work of architecture How far people thought already like to influence the human feeling by rooms that you got brought through, right? So rooms are able to influence emotions a lot and this is like a prime example, I think It's really great. So here's like one of these sequences. So you really walk through this huge axial symmetric monumental heavy stone forms And then there's a shape sometimes there are these columns and on the right side you see these are rectangular columns rectangular square And in front are these kind of statues standing there looking at you all the same So it looks like an army so this kind of repetition of all the same is kind of an element of representative architecture, too It works quite well when you build a row of all the same. It usually has a Kind of a bit representative influence on the on the visitor So you walk through this in this case a courtyard from outside to inside. It's really great And here you have another example on the left and here these are the small temples that I added I just added them in they're on the same land of Karnak just to show you this kind of abstract cubic form and another great but a bit smaller temple is the the Horus temple So here the entrance is very well preserved so we can look how this very abstract strong form Stand or like a monument in the desert, right? And you got brought again through courtyards the same principle as in Karnak but smaller as you see in the floor plan or the bottom of the slide from Again, you have this dense entrance situation You've got like squeezed when you walk through the black block, right? It's like it has a small opening in the middle as you can see It's very narrow small opening narrow so you get kind of concentrated like like squeezed through and then you're in the biggest space to the Courtyard kind of where you see the picture on the right side and you face already this Temple entrance which is higher than the rest so it's kind of pointed out and it has as a frame again around so it's same like the What I showed you the first picture this kind of Geometric overall shape and the columns are placed inside so It's representative again and and and and this the symmetry so you got brought as a visitor through this column courtyard Towards the other entrance so you feel already like probably quite overwhelmed when you arrive at the second gate there And then you get brought again through spaces getting smaller smaller smaller smaller while After you finally arrive at the dark red space, which is the most sacred temple. So when you arrive there you already like Went through a journey right an architectural journey Which really probably cleaned your emotion or influenced your emotion a lot. I really like this kind of dramatic It's like a good movie right starting relaxed and then ending up with the most interesting point, which is in this case the temple the the the red inner temple The most sacred one now here are more pictures from that It's the same one that I showed on the picture before so I really like this kind of architecture Yeah, this is another example of the same sequences of room so you always see sequence sequence sequence but in this case it's a necropolis so I wrote that what it is actually a city for the dead so they build not just the graves in egypt They really believe like a life after that so they build for the dead people Yeah, they actually sometimes copy their whole palace. So this is like a palace, but it's not meant for living It's meant for the king after he dies so he can live his ghost or his spirit can live inside that palace Well after he died, so it's really just for Yeah, it's huge. You see there. It's like again more than one kilometer long And you see on the right side these great sections of of the spaces again covered open small big outside inside And you get brought to the inner core again, which is a small temple But the whole thing the other blue areas are for the king meant to live after he died So it's called necropolis city for the dead just for the dead people Yeah, that's how it looked from the earth It's also pretty pretty well preserved and you have again the contrast of the horizontal laying form very pure without windows without interruptions And the standing entrance pollens which which mark the entrance Yeah, that brings us to the pyramid. So that's my last topic For today. I hope I can finish before 11 30 because I want to give you time for presenting your sketches from last time So the pyramids of giza are the most important ones, but as I said, it was a long journey to reach there So now I will explain these five steps Tony Sorry five steps how you reach there first. I explained the platonic solids That's why I find and I think the egyptian people thought thought similar so First the pyramid is not one of these Solids right and second it goes back to a philosopher called plato and plato lived in the greek culture So much later around 300 before christ So he lived after the egyptian empire and they didn't know plato and they probably also didn't know these forms exactly But plato developed that because I think plato thinks the same what I think and what modern architects think And what also the egyptians I think have thought so but we assume that they have thought that what they thought as follows So the gods are very important right for egyptian and the pharaoh was seen as a as a living god And god is of course something abstract and outside of this world So it's kind of we call it the absolute so it's kind of spirit everywhere Just a spirit And I think plot I don't know from plato We know it because we said it we talked he talked about that He believes that like intelligence is like the first incarnation of god's spirit So the greek weighted intelligence the greek philosophers plato was from greek around 300 before christ valued intelligence very high so it's like Say that the first level that we can reach but intelligence like mind is not visible, right? So the next step would be math mathematics plato thought mathematics is a very high discipline because It's also abstract. So it kind of works. It has its own logic So it's kind of incarnated. It's not god. It doesn't belong to the side of god It belongs to the side of our world of humans, but it's abstract. You can't touch it. Unlike physics physics It's about the objects so the signs of physics so abstract math you saw as a high and maybe the highest signs Because it it's abstract logic that works and this has no body No shape shape and then the next is the geometry. So the platonic solids go back to platon Are the most simple shapes so they are really I see you see a picture like a contemporary art installation that shows these solids But they are describable by math. So it's a part of mathematics. So geometry Math, this is the first incarnation. So they're physical, right? And but that kind of expression of real of pure intelligence. So that's what plato thought That's why he valued them so high and also the pyramid is not a real platonic solid But you can see it looks close like the first one like three triangles together tetrahedron on the left But actually it's an octahedron that you cut in the middle. So octahedron in the in the second from the left has eight Eight Surfaces, they are the same when you actually cut it in the middle you receive the pyramid, right? you get the pyramid and then the cube and so on so there are these simple shapes and I also think it's kind of an expression of intelligence because it's the most abstract form that we can create and as I said abstraction is a form ability that only intelligent creatures can I mean without intelligence, you can't think abstract. You can't summarize you can't Find the essence of something you have to make it more elaborated. You have to speak longer And when you're able to abstract to think abstract you can find the essence and make it shorter So that's why I believe these pyramids and we we think not just me. I mean the historians think the egyptians thought similar That's why they make the graves for the kings that would then become a god when they died the most abstract form they could thought of so the pyramid is kind of the The highest of the shapes because it's pure intelligence kind of pure intelligence which reaches the that's what they thought reaches the eternity the closest so the What comes after the physical world, right? The pure The pure intelligence is that this expression of pure intelligence So but they didn't reach it in one step there that they took five Steps to develop it. I will go through these five steps now The first one is a very common shape. We also have it in mesopotamia the mastaba So this is how they buried um aristocratic people and also kings so the poor people couldn't afford it, but On the left top left side. You see a simple shape like a simple block So this was kind of a grave a normal grave to build edge to grave to to bury Aristocratic people but not just the king so everyone had a bit money at the bus stop had a mastaba And the more representative one you see on the top right side, this is a mastaba for a queen and this is already actually Covered surrounded by probably a model of a palace facade That's how we know how the palaces probably have looked like the palaces are gone But those are built of stones the mastaba because they are again sacral architecture related to religion So they're preserved there. You see a picture on the bottom How it looks now and on the top right side you see a reconstruction and we found something like this and the facade is actually like a Like a king king palace. They they copied the king palace facade and the big mastabas like the one from the queen Also has rooms inside. So it's actually also too for the queen to live after she died same like the necropolis And it has small mastabas around it. That's actually her Um, how you say her stuff her closest stuff and they go with the queen into death So actually when the queen dies all her servants The close servants that commit suicide that was the rule Commit suicide and they were buried around her so they can also serve her when she's dead So that is the queen and also the king had similar ones live inside That mastaba grave and the real body is buried inside. So it's a grave And her servants committed suicide and were buried around her. So that's the early shape. So kind of a block And then it happened really in one step it's a king called yulsa he lived around 2700 and the uh third dynasty So it's at the beginning of the of the so-called old empire or old kingdom He found that this is not enough anymore and he had a chief architect called imhotep and imhotep It's also some movies about it. Uh, hollywood movies again. It's like famous person. He was the chancellor. So the the the boss of the daily politics And I think also a doctor and um physician and and also the architect so he he got the job so please find something more representative and he So there were like three mastabas built for the king yulsa already You see m1 is the first and make it bigger and bigger m2 and 3 but it was not enough So finally imhotep the architect invented this kind of um Called step pyramid. So it looks actually a bit like like the sigurat from mesopotamia And but it's not it's it's a different one So I mean the sigurat is a temple on it on the top of a hill and this is just a monument Where the grave is inside and they actually made two steps p1 is the first and then they make it bigger So and this was the shape where finally the king was buried So it looks it's still preserved. It looks like this Um a bit broken but we can still see this kind of shape this happened around 2700 before christ and next one just 50 years later, they actually Experimented a bit more on the left side. You see And these these three diagrams right you see these three sketches first There was built another Step pyramid we call it step pyramid. We don't call it ziggurat In egypt, but it looks similar And then they created as a Interim form this kind of bent pyramid so it has a steep angle 54 degrees first and then in the middle it becomes flatter and then they build that one, so actually This is the real one how it looks today. So it's still preserved quite well and in dashua and First I mean Either it was really planned like this But we find it a bit weird why it's changing the angle in the middle And on the right side you see a sketch on the bottom right of the page just like this is theory Some people thought they want to build actually a real pyramid a steep one But then the construction was not so easy and then they they kind of changed the plan and made it like flatter from the middle of the height So that was actually not planned like this, but people don't know maybe they wanted to build a real one Maybe they wanted it like this and just kind of try it out as an experiment And the same king then also built this one This has a flat angle of 43 degree. It looks flatter than the real later ones which have been around 51 So the more steep one It looks a bit strange, right? It's called the red pyramid We only have exactly one from this shape built by the same king that built the bent pyramid and in dashua And it's called red pyramid and it looks already a bit flat, right? People assume because they had problems building the steep walls from this one construction problems They say okay now we build a real one. We'll make it flatter So and but it's still not it looks a bit strange, right? And it but it didn't take long. It just took another 50 years and they start with the oldest one of the giza So they were built in the same time. The right one is the largest I mean on the top four to the right one just looks smaller because it's on the back and they were finally So in this kind of classic shape, I mean the average would be 45 degrees right going up But this is the other one was a bit more flat two degrees under 45. This is 51 So it gets this kind of monumental shape of a pyramid and they were covered with like marble or granite So very hard stone so they were like flat shapes in the desert. I mean very strong shapes and the the surface has been removed later by I would say we're kind of stupid people who want to build other stuff with it. So the the marble or granite Surface was removed. There were very big blocks And just the middle pyramid it remains right in the middle one um and they were built in sequences, but just within 200 years because they became too expensive and then actually the The first empire actually the old kingdom finally died Because they spent too much money on the pyramid. So that's why the later empires didn't build so big ones anymore They built some but not so large And as we can see here in the section So the names are basically by the way, Cheops, Chaprin and Mykirinos. The Cheops or Cheops pyramid is the most famous one because it's the biggest and actually the oldest So you can see down the plan the pink one on the right The oldest is the biggest and the Chaprin is the one where the top is still existing Maybe I can go back to that. So the middle one is the Chaprin and the right and the back is the oldest and this is a section through that Cheops pyramid on the bottom of the slide And you see it's basically just massive. It's it's bricks with but it's a very How you say developed construction? They build actually like these vertical shapes that actually vertical walls that kind of support each other So that's why they didn't get demolished over the years and it's covered with a very thick layer I think three meters or something three meter layer of marble or granite so very heavy stone very dense stone and So, yeah, they have a side length about like 130 meters I think so I think the highest is already like 140 something meters. So it's quite huge And then the grave is inside right and the the entrances were closed But what's also preserved is on the black drawing two temples one on the left. Sorry one on the lower part so this is where the red drawing on the plan and it's like entrance temple and then there's a long way like a Procedure way and you come out actually in front of the pyramid and a bigger temple construction, which is about underground So it's mainly mass massive. So you see the black drawing there It's quite an added a temple, but the pyramid itself is a grave monument, right? It's a grave for the king that then should become a god after he died So and this is kind of the highlight of it the pyramidion so was the the peak the very peak of the pyramid We found one or two And they're engraved again with the ornaments so there you see again the the essence of egyptian architecture, so the geometric abstract shape and then engraved with um With a floral ornament. So this piece was the very top to see as the highest Piece of their architecture. Yeah, this was the egypt architecture. I hope you enjoy that. I think I mean I find this very inspirational again because um Yeah, it's it's it's from our current perspective again quite modern in this abstract form right in this geometric form Yeah, I hope you can find inspiration with that