An Introduction to Town Planning in Ancient Egypt

General Geography of Egypt

The land of Egypt in antiquity was seen by the Egyptians themselves as being composed of the upper and the lower lands. The Pharaoh was always seen as the rulers of the two lands. The World of the Egyptians was also characterized by two distinctive landscapes, the Black lands of the river floodplain and the red lands of the surrounding desert.

the Egyptian theirs was two lands comprised of the upper and Lower Egypt.

In the desert near the junction of the two lands, at the head of the delta was the oasis of the Fayim, a broad hollow in the desert, which particularly in latter times became very fertile with irrigation waters diverted from the Nile. 

To the south of Egypt was the land of Nubia or Cush, a land which, while not being Egypt was to have a significant amount of interplay with Egypt, each shaping each other’s culture and politics.

Other lands to the west in the desert and to the east in Asia also left their imprint on the Egyptians and at other time the Egyptian left their imprint on them, but for the course of the five thousand year history of the Nile people, the two lands were Egypt.

Prehistory and Unification of the Land of Egypt

As with Mesopotamia the drying of the savannah in the surrounding regions at the end of the last ice age saw a concentration of people groups into the larger river valleys, in the area of the modern Sahara Desert nomadic people eventually congregated in around the Nile river Valley. The social arrangement of these people appears to have been based on clan loyalties, which as society became more organised established permanent settlements.  Agriculture in the Nile valley[1] is estimated to have taken place only after 5550 BC[2], and may have been as late as 4000BC. The spread of agrarian society was from the north to the south.

During this time three distinct cultures had emerged in the Nile Valley, The north the so-called Maadi culture of the delta region, the Badarian[3] Culture of Middle Egypt and the Nagada culture of the south. It has been shown[4] that each probably developed from Neolithic[5] cultures in the area. A fourth grouping the Tarifian Culture may represent an early stage in the Nagda culture.

The oldest known seasonal settlements in Predynastic period Egypt were found in the Faiyum. Merimda, in the western Delta, was later found to be the oldest permanent settlement, bearing

some similarities to the earlier Faiyum culture. These earliest villages were clusters of

dwellings with no walls or palisades, and circular in shape similar to Abydos.

In the Faiyum, mud huts were built on mounds along the north and northeastern shores of the once considerable lake.  At Merimda, the inhabitants built reed shelters and houses of wickerwork. Underground silos were lined with basketry to store grain. Sheep, cattle, and pigs were kept, and hooks, spears and harpoons indicate fishing. Simple graves were dug under the desert sand in the Faiyum, while at Merimda, the dead were buried in the village area, and there were no grave goods.

El-Omari, south of the Delta apex has remains that consist of circular huts with sunken floors

covered by reed matting and perhaps coated with clay. The dead were buried in the settlement

area with some grave goods, but later, separate cemeteries developed.

The first settlements appeared in the north about 4000BC probably as proto-cities[6].  The first settlements appeared in the delta and the delta was to remain the main area of urbanisation for the reminder of the history of Egypt.  One reason that delta was the first area of settlement is

topographical.

The islands in the delta flood annually, with only the high points protruding above flood waters, and any structures intended to last longer than a year needed to be on the highest points of these islands. This lead over time to a congregation of buildings on the high points of the delta islands, which in time became settlements.  Writing twenty[7] years before Christ the Roman geographer Strabo wrote of his visit[8] to Egypt, where ...The whole Country is under water and becomes a lake, except the settlements and those are situated on natural hills or artificial mounds and certain cities of considerable size