Mastabas In The Old Kingdom

In Ancient Egypt, one of the duties of the king’s was to build and maintain temples to their gods. “The Egyptian word for temple was “god’s house.” These temples were meant to be the home of the gods and would need to have everything a god would need. The temple complex would need to have land, livestock and the people necessary to work the land. Temple complexes were not only built for the gods but were also built for the kings. (Temple) During Early Dynastic Egypt, temple complexes contained simple structures known as mastabas to house the gods. Early Mastabas were a single story rectangular shaped building with slanted walls and flat roof constructed of mud brick and reed built over a burial chamber. Some mastabas contained a serdab to house the image of the deceased and a chapel. In the reign of King Djoser in the Third Dynasty, the architect Imhotep designed a “mustaba-like” like structures with six levels of decreasing sized mustabas stacked one on top of the other to form the Step Pyramid. The step pyramid, which stands 204 feet tall, was built using limestone, and contains a granite lined burial vault (Stokstad and Cothren) Djoser’s Funerary Complex at Saqqara is 1800 feet long by 900 feet wide and surrounded by a 65 foot wall. The true pyramid evolved from the step pyramid structure during the Old Kingdom (c. 2575-2150 BCE). …show more content…
It is three tiered and reflects the landscape of the area. Hatshepsut’s Temple includes the desert, the sloping hills and the stone cliffs of the area. Hers is one of the most spectacular funerary complexes of Egypt. Hatshepsut’s complex is a mile from her actual tomb and is much larger than the tomb itself. The temple complex was designed for commemorative ceremonies and funeral rites. Like other temple complexes, it was designed on an axial plane with an avenue of sphinxes, which led to Karnak. (Stokstad and Cothren,