Common Ancient Egyptian Homes

Essay by split_secondHigh School, 11th gradeA, June 2005

download word file, 5 pages 3.0

Downloaded 12 times

Common Ancient Egyptian Homes

The homes of the people of Egypt reflected their social status, as they do today. Most Egyptians were commoners, living in small, square shaped houses with few windows and flat roofs. In villages as families grew, and villages grew, there was no way to expand their living space, for the towns were enclosed with walls and all space was occupied or used within the town. There were also houses in the country, by the Nile River, which were made of mud brick. Although most information known is about greater, more expensive buildings, because of their lasting building materials, the homes of common Egyptians show what their daily life was like. These fascinating homes show the parallels from Egyptian life thousands of years ago, to life today.

Most homes were built out of mud brick, which was mud, gathered from the Nile and left to dry in the hot sun.

The bricks were made of mud and chopped straw, which was moulded in a square container and left to dry. Some dwellings deteriorated after awhile, and crumbled right down and new houses were built right on top. The homes were whitewashed to prevent the sun from deteriorating the brick, and to cool the houses down. It is difficult to know the exact way a house of a farmer by the Nile was, because mud brick did not last. However, in one excavated town, Deir el Medine, the homes were built out of stone. Usually, stone is only used on religious buildings of pharaohs because they were made to last. This village was 50 meters wide by 150 meters long, and the average house was 4 meters by 20 meters.

The homes at Deir el Medine were cramped with such thin walls that it was impossible to...