How Did The Nile River Influence Ancient Egyptian Architecture

Throughout history we have seen many examples of nature’s involvement in a civilizations advancement in architecture, but no other is on the same magnitude as that of the Nile River on the Ancient Egyptians. The Ancient Egyptians grew into one of the world’s most powerful civilizations of its time and its architecture is what largely set them apart. The Nile River played a crucial role in Ancient Egyptian architecture because of the role it played in the positioning of its cities and tombs, the creation of the surveyor and the influence the Nile had on the shape chosen for the pyramids. Additionally, the role that the Nile River played in the planning of Egypt’s cities and religious monuments is crucial to its overall influence. The Niles yearly flooding and receding would give the Egyptians a belief in life, death and the afterlife. The Nile River split Egypt into an east and west areas. The importance of life and death to the Egyptians influenced the planning of its cities and religious monuments. To the east of the Nile was where the

The yearly flood washed away any resemblance of where individual’s lands started and ended. This problem would be solved with the role of the surveyor. This person was responsible for reestablishing boundary markers of agricultural fields after the yearly flood, this was crucial for land ownership and tax purposes. This role would grow substantially as time went on and would ultimately lead to construction layout surveying. As Royal tombs, including the pyramids, temples, palaces and other major buildings would have been surveyed prior to construction. An example of this is evident in figure one which displays the surveying of the tomb of Menna. The symmetry and proportion of the massive monuments in ancient Egypt well attest to the skill of these ancient surveyors (“Nile Valley: An Early Agrarian