by Dr. Joann Fletcher
Although the ancient Egyptians are best known for
the monumental tombs and temples they built in such
profusion, far less is known about the actual homes
in which they lived their lives.
This is mainly due to the fact that they built their
housing close to the banks of the river Nile, whereas
their tombs and temples were situated away from the
limited arable land on the desert edge. And since
these temples and tombs were regarded as houses of
eternity, designed to last 'millions of years', they
were built from hard stone, in contrast to the houses
of the living which were made of easily available
mud brick. This was even true of royal palaces, a
fact which early scholars had some difficulty accepting
, choosing instead to imagine the ancient Egyptian
kings inhabiting the interiors of the temples themselves!
However we now know that this was simply not the case;
the pharaohs lived in mud-brick structures just like
the rest of the population, albeit on a far grander
scale.
Given that mud brick buildings erected close to a
river tend not to survive as long as stone monuments
in the desert, there is inevitably more evidence for
funerary practices than daily life. This has therefore
created the mistaken idea that the ancient Egyptians
were a morbid race obsessed by religion and death,
and yet nothing could be further from the truth. The
Egyptians loved life so much they simply wanted it
to continue forever, going to great lengths to ensure
an afterlife which would last for eternity. And the
same vitality which went into decorating their tombs
and temples can also be found in their choice of domestic
architecture.
Although settlement sites are relatively rare, the
exceptions to the rule are those built for various
reasons away from the river area, such as the town
of Deir el-Medina (opposite modern Luxor), home to
those who built the royal tombs in the Valley of the
Kings, and again further north at Amarna where the
so-called 'heretic' pharaoh Akhenaten chose to relocate
the royal capital on a desert plain, together with
his royal palace complex.
But this was a move which was first encountered in
the reign of Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III (c.1391-1354
BC), who moved his court permanently to Thebes in
his regnal year 29 (c.1363 BC). The site of his palace
was in ancient times called 'the Palace of the Dazzling
Aten', one of Amenhotep's epithets (also made famous
by his son), but is today better known by its Arabic
name of 'Malkata', meaning 'the place where things
are picked up' after the piles of ancient debris which
still litter this wonderful site.
Situated on the Theban West Bank beneath the western
hills into which the sun sank down each evening, and
directly opposite his temple of Luxor, it was Amenhotep's
Theban base throughout most of his reign. It appears
building work began around year 11 (1381 BC) and continued
until the king moved here permanently around year
29. This was in contrast to previous rulers who were
based at the traditional capital Memphis in the north,
and only came south to Thebes for the annual religious
festivals, where they set up temporary court in palace
buildings attached to Karnak temple. Amenhotep's construction
of an independant palace, not only at the other end
of the city but on the opposite bank of the river
could in fact be viewed as the king distancing himself
yet further from the politically active priesthood
of Amun based at Karnak temple, a move which was taken
even further by his son Akhenaten who created his
new capital way downstream in Middle Egypt.
Following the discovery of Malkata in 1888, subsequent
excavations have revealed a massive site sprawling
over 30 hectares which was still being added to and
embellished at the time of Amenhotep's death. Its
main areas are the king's own apartments in the south-east
section, with its audience chambers, festival hall,
offices, kitchens and storerooms. Then to the south
are the apartments of the king's Great Royal Wife
Tiy and those of their eldest daughter Sitamen to
the north, with quarters for the rest of the royal
family, minor wives and their retinues of literally
hundreds of female attendants. There were also residences
for the king's high officials, the vizier, chancellor
and steward, and of course all the servants they too
would require. Malkata also housed an administrative
sector referred to as the 'West Villas', the royal
workshops with the workers' village to the south,
then to the north a large settlement which acted as
a support town to the palace and past which ran the
causeway connecting the palace to the king's funerary
temple which once stood behind the so-called Colossi
of Memnon one and a half kilometres away. This causeway
also extended over 2 km south-east out into the desert
to Kom el-Samak, the site of a brightly-painted mud-brick
platform for the king's jubilee (sed) festivals, set
with 20 steps decorated with figures of Egypt's enemies
on which the king would ceremonially tread on ritual
occassions. A further 2km west of this lay a similar
monument at Kom el-Abd, together with a royal rest
house and its associated buildings.
The palace also had its own temple of the state god
Amun complete with a large court and a processional
way linking it to an enormous T-shaped harbour (now
known as the 'Birket Habu'). Once fronting the palace
which it reflected in its waters to great dramatic
effect, this two and a half kilometre wide harbour
was skilfully built to link the royal residence to
the Nile, and as well as dealing with the heavy flow
of commercial and administrative water-bourne traffic,
it housed the great golden barge called "The Dazzling
Aten" on which the royal couple sailed forth during
religious and state festivals, in the same way the
statues of the gods were transported. The harbour
also meant it was possible for the king to reach Karnak
and Luxor temples on the opposite bank of the river,
or indeed anywhere else in his kingdom, without the
need of travelling by land - a water-bourne god in
his golden barque, reenacting Ra's journey in his
boat across the heavens.
The whole palace complex was built largely from the
standard mud-bricks, stamped with the king's names,
whereas those used for Queen Tiy's apartments to the
south were also stamped with her name. Door and window
frames were augmented in more durable limestone, sandstone
and wood, with wood also used for shelving and stone
for column bases, steps, drainage systems and bathrooms.
Indeed, the general level of luxury is indicated by
the prescence of well-tended walled gardens with a
central pool, and en-suite bathroom facilities inside.
The brick walls were then plastered and whilst the
exteriors were painted white, the interiors were painted
in vivid colours. From the thousands of fragments
of painted plaster littering the site it is possible
to reconstruct much of the original décor which featured
naturalistic scenes of animals and plants, interspersed
with figures of the gods and amuletic devices, all
enhanced with gilded and glazed tiles and inlays.
Today the best preserved sections of the palace are
the audience chambers leading to the king's own private
apartments, their thicker walls probably supporting
an upper storey. These audience chambers, one 100
feet long, had tiled and painted floors featuring
repeated series of bound captives who would be symbolically
trampled underfoot by anyone crossing the floor, and
the steps leading up to the dais supporting pharaoh's
throne similarly decorated.
The tiles which once adorned the later throne room
of Ramses III in the small palace attached to his
funerary temple of Medinet Habu (and the site of so
many of Amenhotep III's usurped monuments) give an
idea of Malkata's original brilliance, as does Ramses'
own throne room of mudbrick reinforced with stone
column bases and throne dais.
The red, blue and yellow ceiling of Amenhotep's robing
room was originally decorated with a series of S-spirals
and stylised bulls heads, possibly Greek-inspired,
whilst leaping red and white calves, birds in flight
and lush floral motifs adorned the nearby 'harem',
the private suites of the king's close family and
royal women which flanked the columned hall preceding
the throne room. This naturalistic motif was also
used on the floors of the hall, painted to represent
the banks of the river filled with fish whilst birds
flew out from the banks. The ceiling of another room
was painted with vines, whilst walls, doorways, windows
and balconies were decorated with brightly coloured
glazed tiles of flowers, grapes, birds and fish, spirals
and feathers, amuletic symbols of good luck, health
and protection together with the ever-present name
of Nebmaatre written in gold "Horus, strong bull appearing
in Thebes, perfect god, lord of joy, lord of crowns".
The colourful interiors of the palace would have been
further enhanced by the addition of superbly crafted
furniture, surpassing that from the tomb of Amenhotep's
in-laws Yuya and Tuya and at the very least comparable
with that found in the tomb of his own grandson Tutankhamen:
ornamental beds inlaid with ebony and gold, with lions
paw feet and linen sheets, gilded and inlaid chairs,
cross-legged stools made of imitation animal hide,
large feather-stuffed cushions, fringed wall hangings,
jewel caskets, wigboxes, cosmetic chests, gameboards,
candlesticks, flower vases, gold and silver tableware,
vessels of alabaster, glass, faience and pottery.
Pottery from the reign is often superb, its graceful
forms painted or moulded with plant and animal motifs,
lotus, papyrus, grapes, calves, ibex, birds and fish,
together with female figures and the great favourite
Hathor, goddess of beauty and joy, or her companion
figure Bes.
Some of the rooms had built-in wood-topped shelves
for the storage of smaller portable items, although
most things were stored in chests or caskets. The
original interiors, complete with their ornaments,
linens and similarly decorated inhabitants can only
be imagined, although the variety of small personal
items found at the site does help bring its ancient
inhabitants back to life, their rings, bracelets and
necklaces, favourite amulets, cosmetic spoons, kohl
tubes, mirror handles, tweezers, and perfume bottles
and gaming pieces all found here. Small faience book
plates dating from the reign and bearing the names
of the king and queen may even indicate that the king
had his own library at Malkata, a 'per medjat' ('house
of books') such as those found in the temples. Designed
for attachment to chests containing specific texts,
the labels would indicate that horticulture was a
subject of some interest, one inscribed "the book
of the moringa tree and another "the book of the pomegranate
tree", an important reference to the use of ornamental
flowers and plants as an integral part of the king's
building schemes also found in texts on the great
stela from his funerary temple. Writing equipment
and scarab seals have also been found, with hundreds
of clay sealings from rolls of official papyri discovered
in one of the administrative 'West villas'.
Living close to the palace in their own village to
the south, the craftsmen of the royal workshops worked
directly under the king's instructions. Supervised
by 'the Great chamberlain in the Great House', they
produced a dazzling array of superb furniture and
household items of exquisite taste. Intended both
for home consumption and export abroad, they have
been found as far afield as Babylon and Mycenae.
The level of cosmopolitan sophistication indicated
by the free-flow of gifts and ideas between the monarchs
of the ancient world is documented in an archive of
diplomatic correspondence known as the 'Amarna letters'.
In one example, Amenhotep III writes to Kadashman-Enlil,
the king of Babylon, saying: - "I have just heard
that you have built a new palace, and so I am sending
you furnishings for it. Indeed, I shall be preparing
everything possible before the arrival of your messenger
who is bringing your daughter for me to marry, and
when your messenger returns, I will send the furniture
to you. So I now send you a greeting gift of things
for your new house: a bed of ebony overlaid with ivory
and gold; 3 beds of ebony overlaid with gold; 1 large
chair of ebony overlaid with gold; 9 chairs of ebony
overlaid with gold. The weight of the gold on all
these things is 7 minas, 9 shekels and the weight
of the silver 1 mina, 8 and a half shekels. In addition,
I send 10 footrests of ebony, overlaid with gold".
In such letters we finally hear the voice of the king
who not only built the splendid palace of Malkata,
but also the temple of Luxor, parts of Karnak and
the largest of all Egyptian funerary temples which
once stretched out behind the Colossi of Memnon, the
only part which is still visible today.
copyright: Joann Fletcher 2001
Dr. Joann Fletcher's book 'Egypt's Sun King: Amenhotep
III' is now available.