Egyptian Reaction Paper

Before ‘doing my time’ in CSB, I remember switching in between channels over the television and most of the time, finding myself landing on the discovery channel. About 78 percent of the time, they we’re always showing a session on ‘discovering’ pyramids and how all these hosts would wrestle their way going through dark alleyways, reading hieroglyphs carved on walls and how they would be searching for a forbidden tomb with treasure and etcetra. I mean, a tomb is meant to be a burial place for the dead isn’t it? Why all the twists and turns? Why all the extravagance? Why not just a tombstone like everyone else? Why the waste of material and work for the dead? Well, after reading about the Egyptians in depth, questions answered. Nothing was more important to the Egyptians than eternal life. They highly believed in life after death and so, the pharaohs would plan their pyramid before they passed away, including what belongings they would bring along and the slaves that he would need. I read somewhere that this would apparently “make things easier for the pharaoh to travel to the afterlife”. This was supposedly the same reason why their pyramids were shaped in that manner; it helped the pharaoh climb to the heavens, through the sunrays (despite the earlier shape of the early tombs, the Mastabas, where they were made masmataba (;, more rectangular in shape than pyramidal). What fascinates me here is that there is no assurance in life after death, yet they go through with all the hard work just to get their pyramids built. I think the main reason why we are so captivated about pyramids today is because of their originality and the story behind every line and point on a pyramid and why were they designed that way.

As an architecture student, I can learn from Egyptian architecture and apply it to my work today. It ‘shines a light’ on design and purpose and tells me how important it is to consider function behind every design I create. A building should not look a certain way just to make it look ‘pretty’ but because a structure looks that way because of the natural factors that affect the design limitations. One way or another, it also suggests where I should draw a line when it comes to applying art in designing a structure.