During the Neolithic period and the pre-dynastic period, the ancient Egyptians lived in huts. At the end of those eras, these dwellings turned into what looked like little cabins or rooms built of mud (we will talk about each model of them with the doors related to those ages). There is no doubt that Egyptian homes, in historical eras, have varied and varied significantly, according to each of the ages, and also according to the heterogeneity of regions and social classes. Perhaps, it is better to provide several examples of the shelter inhabited by the ancient Egyptian people. Generally speaking, we will find that the house of the poor has not changed and has never changed: a mud hut that may accommodate one, two, or three rooms. And inside it lives all the family members.

We do not currently have a comprehensive idea of ​​Egyptian housing in the “old country.” However, a model was recently found at Saqqara: it is constructed of mud bricks and has an entrance that leads to three rooms. Perhaps it belonged to one of the heads of the work on the pyramid of the king – a bridge.” But we surrounded the facades of the wealthiest houses: the drawings showed us in one of the Giza cemeteries that it is possible to enter and reach the centre of the residence through a front yard, which includes at the end a large entrance.

In the late “Old Kingdom” and then in the “Middle Kingdom”, the housing structure is revealed to us through “houses of life” and some samples and excavations. They are “houses of life”, it turns out, that all the dwellings could have been entered after crossing a large corridor. In the tenth dynasty, the upper-story houses appeared, and they seemed to be used as a store or warehouse for goods. During the Middle Kingdom, the main chamber was installed either on the ground or above. The latter was often provided with windows that opened and overlooked an entrance that overlooked the row of columns erected at the entrance: there, the people of the house would sit on the hot summer nights to inhale some of the damp, fresh breezes. The model presented by the drawings in the cemetery of the so-called “Maktra” belongs to the eleventh family. In it, we see that a courtyard precedes the corridor with several trees scattered around it. And his dwelling appears, in every sense of the word. Thus, it has several annexes: a storehouse, a brewery, an altar, a trade store, a spinning and weaving workshop, a store for storing foodstuffs, and a stable.

The Kahun excavations give us a description of the interior of the dwellings mentioned above. From them, we find two types of houses: those for workers and ordinary people: they often consist of three rooms, but, in some cases, they may accommodate ten. It is noted that their façades are clear and simple and extend to about seven or eleven meters. Then there are the residences of the officials and nobles; The number of its halls and lobbies may reach about seventy-one; The extent of its extension shall not be less than sixty meters. Thanks to planning one of these houses, we can see how accurately and skillfully preparing it is. So we see the wards of the master of the house, the harem (the residence of the women of the family and their children), the places of service, the kitchens, and the rooms of the servants; All of this was knowingly and skillfully separated from one another and distributed around squares shaded with trees.

Usually, it can be entered through several straight and intersecting paths, and it may not differ much from what is known as mazes. Therefore, it was also necessary to have a residence for the house’s guard, located at the public entrance. This person was tasked with directing the visitors to their desired destination. But as for the homes of the “modern state”, we knew a lot about them, thanks to some excavations and many drawings and inscriptions. For starters, it should be noted that luxurious homes such as “Amarna” are not much different from those located in “Kahun”: they are spacious; It consists of square groups, the dimensions of each of which may not be less than seventy-five meters. Therefore, the dwelling of the bulls’ head of the Aton temple is regarded as “villas” or small palaces: where the wings of the homeowner are completely separated from the places of service and public affairs. In its atmosphere, there are barns, stables, granaries, and places for preparing foodstuffs, where all the necessities and necessities of the residents of this place are made.

As for the house of ministers, “Nakht” is a palace in every sense of the word. It includes large baptized halls, spacious balconies, and luxurious corridors connecting a group of rooms of no less than thirty-one. The “Amarna Excavations” and “Deir al-Madina” also provided us with an idea of ​​the dwellings of craftsmen and ordinary workers: they vary and vary in their extent. And they may all be similar, with a slight difference in some details. In general, we will describe here one of the houses of Deir al-Madina: As we enter from the street, we find ourselves on the ground floor: we reach it by several steps. It is, without a doubt, the reception hall; Inside it was found a base constructed of bricks, dimensions 0.75 MX 0.80 m. It was 1.70 m in length, and it was possible to climb to it using a few stairs; But, we do not know yet, is it a model of a deck or a terrace, or just a bed?

The hall next to this place is a comfortable rectangular seat (Divan); Its roof rests on one or two wooden poles. On one of its walls, a niche was dug, which was in pieces, containing a bust symbolizing the ancestors and ancestors of the homeowner. And we also noticed fake doors in some of those walls. In other homes, starting in this same room, one can take a few stairs down to the house’s basement. This room with a bouncy rectangular seat was considered a living space. And always, this seat was made of bricks. And in it, there was also a small temple, where some fragrant incense was burned. Beyond it is the bedroom; From there, one can access the kitchen that leads to the stairs leading to the house’s roof. In the kitchen, we can find spare quantities of water, the oven for bread, and the dough hook. Sometimes, the kitchen may lead to the cellar in which you usually store: cereals and grains. It seems clear that all of these rooms follow each other in a single row.

About the public houses, or the luxurious Amarna palaces, they do not accommodate any special places in the harem: this means that the spouses, during that period, were sharing one room, and their children in their rooms. Perhaps these customs and traditions, which are different from those of the great folk in the preceding eras of this period, were necessitated by some economic difficulties in the surrounding of the poor. As for the wealthy, Amarna tended to be intimate and warm in the family: there is no doubt that Akhenaten was the clearest example of this. As for the ablution halls (baths), all the luxurious homes, beginning in the “Middle Kingdom” and perhaps before it, had them. And sometimes, the houses, especially in the big cities, appeared on alternating floors. Here is the story of “Satney”, for example, telling us: Tebubi was staying in a room on the upper floor …” Finally, the walls of the halls were painted and decorated with beautiful floral or geometric scenes.

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