Royal & Private Tombs
Ancient
Egypt had created a monumental architecture. On its grounds first colossal
monuments – royal tombs - were discovered. The tombs – belonging either to kings
or to private individuals were becoming more and more sophisticated until they
achieved their final form. Two elements in the temple were obligatory: the
funerary chamber and the cult-place. During the Old and Middle Kingdom they were
placed in conjunction with each other making a main part of the funerary
complex. Other parts of a temple are: a monumental mastaba with vertical shaft
leading down the chamber, pyramid with numerous
passages and chambers covered with pile of stones. These were supposed to
protect the passages and sacral chambers against undesirable visitors. An
original invention of the New Kingdom was a separation probably resulting from a
concern for keeping a burial place in a strict secret. This was to prevent a
burial place more effectively from profanation. Royal tombs, later also tombs of
high officials had been hewn in bed-rocks of valleys
on the west of Thebes. Funerary temples belonging to them had been erected a few
hundred meters farther, beyond the mountain escarpment. Few
hundred officials were buried in numerous
necropolises in Western Thebes. Most of them date to the New Kingdom.
Reconstruction
of tombs, their design and dimensions provide a good material for studies of the
development of Egyptian sacral architecture. Some of them are represented
schematically below.
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