A typical nobleman´s villa in the New Kingdom

Housing in General:
Houses during the New Kingdom, as well as both in earlier and later periods, was built of mud bricks. These houses were not very long-lasting. Often poor houses were built close to the edge of the river and when it flooded, people had to move out and further inland. When they returned after the Inundation period, their mud brick houses were often washed away, leaving little or no remains. A new building was then constructed on top of the old site. The easiest way to do this was to water the clay rubble well and let it to set and harden. Then new mudbricks could be applied.Wood beams were tied together with papyrus rope to make a frame. Then the frame was covered with white limestone plaster to deflect the hot rays of the sun - another factor of the short life of these buildings.

Foundations were mostly not used. Soil above ground water level was baked to become rock-hard in the sun and could be used directly after some levelling. Building material for both wealthy and poor pepole were the same: mudbrick made of mud from the Nile and mixed with chaff were let to dry in wooden forms in the sun. If there were stone to be found close by, like a quarry or a derelict temple, lintels and doorways could be made with this. Regardless of size or the owner´s social status, houses in general had flat roofs and were designed to either keep the heat of summer out, and protect from the cold winter nights.

Middle-class Town Houses
In towns or cities, the houses of the common people, i.e. the middle class, were usually two to three stories high and built close together. The upper floors were for living while the ground floor often housed a business. Roofs were flat and in the hot period, they were used as a sleeping place. Cooking was often done on the roof too, as a cooking fire would not be safe indoors.

Poor Houses
People like farmers, tomb builders and soldiers, lived in cramped villages in the vicinty of the tomb area or the fields. In front of the houses there was a walled-in courtyard where often the animals like goats and cattle, were kept. The peasant’s house was a sun-dried brick or clay-daubed reed shelter, one room, one door and no windows. More often than not, everyone in the family slept in that one room together with any cattle and other animals they might possess. The image to the left shows that there is no big difference between poor houses in the countryside today and those 3000 years ago.

Well-to-do Egyptians
had spacious estates on the outskirts of cities, with comfortable houses or a townhouse. The houses had high ceilings with pillars, barred windows, tiled floors, decoratively painted walls, and stair cases leading up to the flat roofs where one could overlook the estate. There would be pools with lotuses and fish, gardens with flowers and palm groves, servant's quarters, wells, granaries, stables, and a small shrine for private worship.

In the rich houses the rooms would be arranged around an inner courtyard or on one side of a corridor. There would be reception rooms and private quarters. The entrance was set in the wall facing the street and the windows were set high up in the walls of the upper storey. They would be covered with shutters or mats to keep out heat, dust and insects.

The substantial Egyptian home often had a bathroom and even a toilet. A room set aside for bath had a slab of stone in a corner for standing on or lieing on while a servant doused you with water. Often the walls here were covered with stone too, as the packed earth which often was used for floors, would be unsuitable in a bathroom. The used water ran off into a bowl which was either emptied by hand, or there were holes at its bottom, though which the water drained slowly into the ground. Toilets could be either a toilet stool with a hole in it, or a seat made of limestone.

Water was taken from wells, at least from the New Kingdom. These were either private or public. But water was also taken from the river or from the canals. This often caused many health problems and epidemics were a common part of life. Used water from baths or toilets was disposed of either in the river, the street, or in pits, adding to the unhealthy conditions.

A Nobleman´s villa, probably not only in the New Kingdom period
but typical for both earlier and later periods.

Palaces
From the New Kingdom period some palace buildings remain. From the 18th Dynasty there is the Malkata Palace, built for Amenhotep III, located south of his mortuary temple on the West bank of Waset (Gr: Thebes, modern Luxor). Then there are two of the five palaces built for Akhenaten at Amarna: the North Palace and the Great Palace. From the 19th Dynasty and the Palace of Merenptah at MenNefer (Gr: Memphis) a throne room has been dug out by the University of Philadelphia. And from the 20th Dynasty there are the remains of Medinet Habu, the palace of Ramesses III.

A king could have more than one palace, and often these buildings were only inhabited while the carrying out of certain ceremonies and receptions were made. Whle there, their needs were supplied to by those who were stationed to see to the palace at all times. After an event, the whole court would move to another location. As in the earlier periods, royal abodes were far more elegant than common houses, regarding size and decoration. The preferred building material however, was the regular mudbrick with door- and windowframes by stone.

Amenhotep III: The Palace of Malkata
was called in the ancient tongue Tehen Aten ('Splendour of the Aten') were designed to house not only the Royal family and their servants but also guests from all over the known world who gathered to celebrate the three Heb Sed Festivals of Amenhotep III. The main palace covered over 32 hectares and included on the premises; a large temple to Amun, residences for officials, a palivvion for audiences, womens´apartments, servants quarters, kitchens, and three palaces of which the largest one was for the king.

A small part showing the patterned ceiling in the palace of Amenhotep III

The king´s bedroom measured ca 8 by 5 meters and the royal bed was on a raised recess. In the Great Hall, the floor was painted to resemble a pool in the marshes. The floor in the palace next door was painted to look like a pond with waterplants and birds. The ceiling of the Great Hall was decorated with painted flying vultures while the king´s bedroom ceiling had flying vultures inside a border of rosettes and a band of checquers. Many ceilings in the palace were painted with interweaving designs and motifs like flying birds, dados etc.

Ramesses II: Pi-Ramesse
There are contemporary descriptions telling of the splendours of the palaces of Ramesses II. Sadly almost nothing of this has survived. Excavations at his main city Pi-Ramesse in the Delta (modern Quantir) have yielded many many beautiful tiles of faience, enough to think the ancient reporters were not exaggerating too much.

More about Pi-Ramesse

A tentative plan of Pi-Ramesse, after Kenneth A. Kitchen

Ramesses III: Medinet Habu

Medinet Habu was called Djamet which means 'Men and Mothers'. This complex consists of a palace, a temple for the worship of Rameses III and one temple dedicated to Amun. There are also storehouses, and lodging for the priests. The palace part was superimposed on an earlier building. The ground plan shows that it was rather like the palace built by Ramesses II next to the Ramesseum. It is not the purpose here to give a full description of the whole temple and palace site, only to touch briefly at the subject of palaces.

Reconstruction of Medinet Habu Palace & Temple Complex
after Richard H. Wilkinson - The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt

The palace was placed on the southern side of the temple of Medinet Habu and was originally decorated with glazed tiles and limestone protected the bathroom walls and floors from the mudbrick. The palace was once two-storeyed and consisted of a row of six apartments with two rooms each. There was a throne room, a vestibule with 12 columns, and side-chambers for various purposes. At the north wall of the vestibule, a short flight of stairs led up to the "Window of Appearances". This is where the king would show himself for his subjects who could see him from the first court below. There were two doorways on either side of this "Window of Appearance", which led to the inner parts of the palace. Behind the throne in the throne room is a "false door" like those which were used in tombs, which purpose might very well have been to make a possibility for the king to visit his palace from the Underworld after his death.

Window of Appearance at Medinet Habu. Note the heads of prisoners of war below it.

The later part of the palace is different from the earlier building. Though it is fairly small, it seems to have mainly been utilized as an official residence. It was situated parallell to the south temple pylon where a doorway set against the pylon gave entrance to a small recepotion room. Behind this, was another six-columned reception room where perhaps visitors were received. There is no throne dais however. To the south are the king´s living quarters, where a bedroom with raised dais for the bed lies towards the east. To the west we find a bath/shower room, and the earlier six small apartments had been turned into three en-suite rooms with a living-room, a bedroom and a small chamber for other purposes, perhaps for the servants and for storage.

The Medinet Habu Palace-Temple Complex had no kitchens or servants´ quarters. There were no animal pens or other areas for service. This indicates that the place was notused on a daily basis, it was a place for grand ceremonies of state and celebrations of festivals and of the deities. At such times as it was visited, the needs of the King and his retinue was probably provided by the staff of the temple precinct or personnel travelling with the royal company.

For an accout of Housing at the Workers´ Village at Deir el-Medina and at Amarna, go here.

See also:
Housing in Ancient Egypt I: The Early Period - Middle Kingdom.
Housing in Ancient Egypt III: Amarna & Deir el-Medina.