Urban Planning In Ancient Egypt

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The use of urban planning in ancient Egypt is a matter of continuous debate. Because ancient sites
usually survive only in fragments, and many ancient Egyptian cities have been continuously inhabited
since their original forms, relatively little is actually understood about the general designs of Egyptian
towns for any given period.[1]
The Egyptians referred to most cities as either nwt or dmi.[2] Nwt usually refers to unplanned cities that
grew naturally, such as Memphis and Thebes, while dmi can be translated as "settlement" and usually
refers to towns that were laid out along a plan. The archaeological evidence of such cities is best
preserved, and has been most thoroughly excavated, at el-Lahun, Deir el-Medina, and Amarna, though
some evidence of urban planning exists at other sites as well.

[edit] Predynastic period

Main article: Predynastic Egypt
Almost no traces of Egyptian settlements exist before the development of neolithic culture around 6000
BC, as settlements were certainly very small, and buildings were made of perishable materials such as
reeds and were not meant to be permanent structures.[3] Sites that do survive do not show much evidence
of urban planning. The earliest known predynastic settlement is at Merimda-Beni Salame at the
southwest desert edge of the Nile Delta and covers about 44 acres, a very large area for the predynastic
period. The city was rebuilt three times during its inhabited life, and in at least one of its incarnations, its
houses were placed very regularly along a main street. Almost all the houses follow a plan which faces
their doorways to the northwest, to avoid the prevailing northerly wind.
Other known pre-dynastic settlements, such as those of the Badarian and Naqada cultures, are laid out
arbitrarily and lack a defining plan. These villages mostly consisting of small huts situated around
circular storage pits.

[edit] el-Lahun
Main article: el-Lahun
The workmen's village at el-Lahun was built and inhabited during the reign of Senusret II of the Twelfth
Dynasty.[4] Located near the entrance to the channel of the Nile that leads to the Faiyum Oasis, it housed
the workers who constructed Senusret's pyramid as well as the priests who maintained the royal funerary
cult, and possibly even the king himself. The village was apparently only fully inhabited during the
king's reign.
The village was organized according to a regular plan. It was centered on the temple of the Senusret's
pyramid, which visually dominated the village, and it consisted of two unequal quarters enclosed by
mudbrick walls on at least three sides. The smaller western quarter contained the relatively humble
dwellings of the workers that were laid out on a rectangular grid pattern. Flinders Petrie, who first
excavated the site, noted how the layout of the neighborhood would allow a single nightwatchman to
easily guard the area. The houses all followed the same basic pattern and dimensions, and they were
evenly spaced along the parallel streets. The streets were paved, and stone drainage channels built into
them, leading to a central drain, allowed the disposal of dirty water from the houses. The much larger
easter quarter contained considerably larger buildings, including mansions, an "acropolis" with an
attached guard building, storerooms, a few more workers' dwellings, and some buildings at the far east
side whose purposes are unknown.
[edit] Deir el-Medina
Main article: Deir el-Medina
The workmen's village at Deir el-Medina, located in a valley on the west bank of the Nile across from
Thebes, was first constructed under Thutmose I of the Nineteenth Dynasty to house the workers who
worked on the tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings during the New Kingdom.[5] The village is
surrounded by a thin mudbrick wall and built around a central street. Houses were connected at the
sides, sharing walls for building and space efficiency. It is possible that entire blocks of houses were
covered by a single roof.
The original village had 20 houses, probably supporting a population of about 100 people. The village
was expanded once under Thutmose III, and when the workers returned to Deir el-Medina after the reign
of Akhenaten, during which they were transferred to Amarna, the village was expanded again and
formed nine distinct quarters. At its largest point, Deir el-Medina contained 120 houses and probably
about 600 inhabitants.

[edit] Amarna
Main article: Amarna

Royal Wadi
Workmen's village
Tomb of Akhenaten
Northern tombs
Southern tombs
Stelae U
Desert alters
Maru-Aten
Northern Palace
North City
Kom el-Nana
Stelae H
 Great Aten Temple
Akhenaten of the Nineteenth Dynasty built Akhetaten as the new capital city of Egypt.[6] For the
location, he chose Amarna, a fresh site on the eastern bank of the Nile, about 275 kilometers northwest
of the old capital city of Thebes. After his death, the city was virtually abandoned. The degree of
planning involved in the construction of Amarna involved for the most part the administrative and
religious buildings of the Central City.[7] Even the planned part of the city was somewhat hastily
designed and assembled.[8] Most of the city was built along an eight kilometer north-south main street,
referred to today as the “Royal Road,” which connected the Central City with the North City, an
outlying satellite and the probable residence of the king.[9] The king probably lived in the North
Riverside Palace in the North City, a large building on the east side of the Royal Road and separate from
the rest of the city, protected by a fortified wall which enclosed a complex of royal service buildings. On
the opposite side of the road from the palace lay a group of some of the largest houses in the city,
probably belonging to nobles who were very close to the king. An administrative building containing an
enormous warehouse formed the northern limit of the North City. At the southern end of the Royal Road
lay the Central City, a group of temples, palaces, and administrative buildings forming the executive hub
of the city. The planned buildings of the Central City can be found in an inscription on one of the
Amarna Boundary Stelae which marked the boundaries of the city at its founding.[10] In it, Akhenaten
describes the main buildings he will construct in his new capital:
…I am making a House of the Aten for the Aten my father in Akhetaten in this place. I am making the
Mansion of the Aten for the Aten my father in Akhetaten in this place. I am making the “Sunshade of
Re” of the [great] royal wife…for the Aten my father in Akhetaten in this place. I am making a House of
Rejoicing for the Aten my father in the island of “Aten distinguished in jubilees” in Akhetaten in this
place. I have made a house of Re-[joicing of the Aten] for the Aten my father in the island of “Aten
distinguished in jubilees” in Akhetaten in this place. [11]
Some of these buildings can be identified easily by their inscriptions, but we know the names of others
only through this speech. On the entire western side of the road and probably reaching down to the
riverside was the Great Palace, consisting of several stone courts and halls, and housing at its center a
huge courtyard surrounded by statues of Akhenaten.[12] Across the road and connected by a brick bridge
lay the King’s House, a small palace and residence of the king.[13] South of the palace (on the west side
of the road) was the Mansion of the Sun-disc, a religious building whose purpose is not completely
understood but was likely the king’s mortuary temple.[14] In the northernmost position on the east side of
the road in the Central City was the largest temple of all, the House of the Sun-disc, or the Great Temple
of the Aten, which lay on an east-west axis and consisted of a rectangular walled area measuring 760 by
290 meters, enclosing several individual temples. Near the temples were long storehouses and priests’
housing.[15] Due east of the king’s house were offices, the archives (in which the Amarna Letters were
found), and police and military barracks. On the eastern outskirts of the Central City was a walled
workmen’s village housing the workers during the city's construction. Villas of the king’s vizier’s and
priests sprawled along both sides of the Royal Road to the south. At the far south of the city was an
unusual complex called the Maru-Aten, a walled complex of gardens, pools, an artificial island, and
open-air kiosks.[16] While it was originally mistaken by excavators as a sort of pleasure resort, it is
understood now to be a religious building.
Most of Amarna’s housing was in two large areas north and south of the Central City.[17] These
sprawling suburbs housed the large population needed to maintain the court and run the administration
of the Central City. Residing in the suburbs was a very mixed collection of social groups, the priests,
soldiers, builders, sculptors and scribes having the most prominent houses. As far as the residential
sections of Amarna are concerned, there is almost a complete absence of an imposed layout. Outside the
corridor of the Royal Road, there were a few broad, far from straight streets running more or less north
and south and joining the suburbs to the center, crossed by perpendicular, smaller streets. The houses
themselves are arranged in arbitrary clusters which create distinct neighborhoods. There does not seem
to be any concept of “prime location,” except to be located on one of the main north-south streets, and
rich and poor seemed to live side by side. Proximity to the Central City or the Royal Road seems to have
been unimportant, and there is at least one example of a royal vizier who seems to have chosen to live as
far away from the king as possible.

[edit] References
1. ^ Kemp, "el-Amarna" 124
2. ^ Uphill
3. ^ Uphill
4. ^ Uphill
5. ^ Uphill
6. ^ Kemp, "el-Amarna" 123
7. ^ Kemp, Ancient Egypt 284
8. ^ Redford 144
9. ^ Kemp, Ancient Egypt 284
10. ^ Fairman
11. ^ Fairman 136
12. ^ Kemp, Ancient Egypt 184
13. ^ Kemp, Ancient Egypt 287
14. ^ Redford 146
15. ^ Redford 148
16. ^ Redford 149
17. ^ Kemp, Ancient Egypt 327

[edit] Bibliography
● Fairman, H. W. "Topographical Notes on the Central City, Tell el-‘Amarnah." Journal of
Egyptian Archaeology 21 (1935): 135-139.
● Kemp, Barry. "The City of el-Amarna as a Source for the Study of Urban Society in Ancient
Egypt." World Archaeology 9.2 (1977): 123-139.
● Kemp, Barry. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. New York: Routledge, 2006.
● Redford, Donald B. Akhenaten, the Heretic King. Princeton University Press, 1984.
● Uphill, Eric. Egyptian Towns and Cities. Oxford: Shire, 2008.