Significant prehistoric architectural achievements of Western Europe, composed of large stones or boulders.
It has an earthen mound nearly 300 feet in diameter and thirty-six feet high covering the tomb.
They were erected for astronomical observatories.
Mastabas are the earliest tombs built as eternal houses for the departed, likely based on the design of the dwellings of the living.
A mortuary temple is a structure located at the base of a pyramid where the corpse of a pharaoh receives a final ritual cleansing prior to entombment.
The palace was embedded in the city's massive surrounding wall, which was reinforced by repetitive towers, and it was organized orthogonally around multiple courts.
Ziggurats are constructed of sun-dried brick, bonded together with bitumen, reed matting, or rope, and finished with a weather-resistant exterior layer of kiln-fired brick.
Egyptians believed that the provision of servants, food, and drink for the dead were important for the afterlife.
The tomb of Mentuhotep features two levels of colonnaded terraces surrounding a masonry mass, which was long thought to be a pyramid but is now interpreted as a flat-roofed hall.
Urban temple forms developed during the Neo-Sumerian period, characterized by their stepped structure.
Huni's pyramid, with its stepped core rising above the rubble, has been given the descriptive name of an 'onion pyramid.'
Pylons are monumental masonry entrance gates that lined processional routes, representing the eastern mountains of Egypt and through which the divine early-morning sunlight emanated.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu.
The White Temple is a Sumerian structure built on a forty-foot high base of rubble, with a protective coat of whitewash over its sloping walls of earth, and covered with sun-dried brick.
Khafre's pyramid is distinguished by the substantial fragment of the original smooth limestone casing at its apex.
They were designed to elevate the temples to the gods so that the gods could descend from the heavens and ensure the prosperity of the people.
The First Intermediate period.
Amenophis IV disavowed the multitudes of deities that were traditionally worshipped in ancient Egypt.
An Assyrian king known for employing architecture and art in his royal city of Khorsabad to convey his power.
They served as a visual symbol of the connection between the ruler and the sun god.
Queen Hatshepsut's funerary complex was inspired by the neighboring temple of Mentuhotep.
Sumerians, which began to take shape around 4000 BCE in southern Mesopotamia.
Made of granite.
Osiris is the lord of the underworld in Egyptian theology, linked with the sun god Ra.
Akhetaten was a linear town nearly seven miles long, bounded on the west by the Nile, with transportation facilitated by a waterway and a river road linking various residential sections.
It featured an acropolis with two temples, a shrine, and dwelling houses.
A boat bearing a pharaoh's body would land to disembark its royal cargo at a valley temple, located alongside the Nile.
Amenophis IV instituted a monotheistic religion devoted to the sun disc Aten.
Most Sumerian buildings were built using sun-baked brick.
The first pyramid was built for the funerary complex of pharaoh Djoser.
Queen Hatshepsut's funerary complex at Deir-el-Bahari is notable for its architecture and the fact that its patron was a woman.
Sneferu.
Amenophis IV, also known as Akhenaten, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who instituted a monotheistic religion devoted to the sun disc Aten and disavowed the traditional multitude of deities.
Imhotep is the architect credited with designing the first pyramid in ancient Egypt.
He ended Persian dominance.
The middle chamber of Khufu's pyramid served as his spirit chamber.
Khafre's pyramid.
The largest roofed space in the palace at Persepolis, capable of containing 10,000 people within its 250-foot square plan.
The tomb of Mentuhotep II is known for its architectural innovation that combines temple and tomb chamber in a single composition.
Pylon gates symbolize the entrance through which the sun is reborn each day.
Egypt's first monumental construction in stone, which survived through 4600 years.
The Middle Kingdom is characterized as a second phase of centralized government that followed the First Intermediate period.
The slits in the stone clerestory grilles of hypostyle halls were designed to admit daylight, creating a sense of mystery for religious rituals.
Khafre's pyramid.
Hypostyle halls are sizeable chambers created by rows of large columns placed closely together, constructed during the course of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
As a means of documenting governmental transactions.
Three burial chambers.
A valley temple is a structure located alongside the Nile where a boat bearing a pharaoh's body would land to disembark its royal cargo.
The smallest of the Giza trio of major pyramids.
