Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt
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The art and architecture of ancient Egypt is known to almost every person, as it is so distinct from other cultures works. Ranging from wall paintings of Anubis and Horus, to the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx, the artwork is not exactly new to many. Though the creators of the art may not be known, their images are forever part of the great history of ancient Egypt.
When you think of ancient Egyptian artwork, stiffness in the human figures is very apparent. There is basically no trace of movement in the entire work. Throughout ancient Egypts three thousand year history, our style has only changed once, and that change was very brief, lasting only through one ruler. In that time of change, the figures in the artwork gained a feminine look. All of the paintings are two-dimensional profiles mainly of various pharaohs and gods.
Hieroglyphics, Greek for sacred writing, have become a term directly associated with Egyptian art. Hieroglyphics are a pictograph writing system, where a picture stands for an idea. An example of this would be the owl. It can either be used for the sound of an Ðm, or it can mean an actual owl. Originally written on stone and clay, papyrus reeds were later used as a form of paper.
Temples are huge in the Egyptian world, as they represent the power of the rulers. One of the most famous temples in Egypt is the Karnak Temple Complex. The construction of the temple complex required thousands of laborers, who served in a rotating workforce.
The things that are the most recognizable and least-known about Egypt are the huge pyramids. The pyramids were huge burial complexes for the pharaohs. It is believed in Egyptian culture that when an Egyptian would die, their spirit, or ka, would live on, and the pyramids were a way to ensure they were comfortable. Originally based off of ziggurats, as shown by the Stepped Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, pyramids were eventually created to satisfy religious demand. The pyramids were based on the sun-god Re, whose emblem was a pyramidal stone known as a ben-ben. The Great Pyramids represented the culmination of the architectural revolution that began with the mastaba, Arabic for bench.
To protect the pyramids, the sphinx was created, and has become the second-most recognizable structure of Egypt. The Sphinx, which has the body of a lion and the head of a man, was strategically placed, so that when it was viewed from the east, it looks