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Modern Egypt struggles to amalgamate the cultural
legacies of thousands of years of history with the crass modernism
of the twentieth century. A causal visitor to Egypt
is confronted with a mishmash of the old and the new.
Mud brick buildings vie with modern concrete
structures while Bedouins complete the picture with their
goat skin tents. Cars honk their way through busy streets
that are also the leisurely pathways of indifferent, phlegmatic
camels.
The flowing robes of the traditionalists can
be seen juxtaposed with the Levis and Reeboks. However,
Modern Egypt is not all confusion. It is picturesque
mixture of the old and the new gracefully blending with and
merging into a breathtaking landscape.
From time immemorial the Egyptians have built
houses with mud bricks. The Nile supplies the mud and
the sun bakes them into hard solid pieces of masonry.
Though these houses do not stand the test of time, they are
still the most popular types of buildings to be found in Egypt.
The houses are cheap to build and easy to repair or extend
or renovate.
The bricks used in these houses are created
out of the mud from the Nile. The mud is pounded fine
and mixed with straw and poured into wooden moulds and left
in the sun to bake. Depending on affordability the inner
walls would be decorated with paintings while outer walls
are whitewashed with lime and water.
The earthen floor would be covered with reed
mats or tiled with colourful tiles. The ceiling would
be made of sticks and palm rafters woven together.
The ‘townhouse’ is another structure
that can be commonly seen in Egypt. These are multi
storied houses, square in shape and consisting of three main
rooms—a sleeping area, a living area and a yard.
The yard would act as a kitchen and a cylindrical, baked clay
oven is used for the purpose. A grinding floor for grain
is sometimes present in the yard. Most houses have two
cellars for storage of food underground.
The front of the house has a space allotted
to craftsmen for carpentry and pottery making. The interior
walls of the living space contain niches and various statues
of protective gods and goddesses are kept. Many of the
houses have stairs leading to a flat roof. The roof
contains a vent for catching cool breezes.
Storage bins for grains are kept on this
roof. Egyptians spend a lot of time on this roof during
the hot months. Wealthier Egyptians constructed more
spacious estates with lavishly decorated pillars and brilliantly
coloured paintings adorning the walls of their home.
Secluded gardens and pools with sweet smelling lotus blooms
and servant quarters, granaries or stables could adorn the
courtyards.
Poorer Egyptians do not make provision for
running water in these homes. However the wealthy include
‘bathrooms’ which are actually recessed rooms
with square slab of limestone in the corner. The used
water is collected in a bowl in the floor and emptied into
the outside. Modern day Egyptians have upgraded to proper
bathrooms wherever possible. However, the scene hasn’t
changed much in the villages of Egypt.
Another predominant building type that can
be seen in Egypt is the Islamic houses. These houses
are built on a standard pattern. They are rectangular
houses built around a central courtyard. The walls are
windowless and there is a single door to the outside.
The advantage of this style is that it is
easily expandable and more rooms are added around the courtyard
as the family grows. If horizontal expansion becomes
impossible the house is expanded vertically.
The Harem is usually located at the back of
the house while the reception rooms and the men’s rooms
are located at the front of the house. The entrance
to the female quarters is known as Haramlik and strangers
are not allowed to enter here.
The mashrabiyats made of an wood called Khart
was added to the houses to enable women to see out without
themselves being seen. The women are provided with a
private sitting area at the top of the house overlooking the
ground floor. Most houses have common bath halls which
are visited by men and women at separate timings.
Modern Egypt is intent on building new towns
on European planning models to support increase in population
and better use of space. The respatialization has resulted
in new cities emerging besides older settlements.
The urban fabric is made up of corrugated
steel and cinder blocks. Housing takes the form of multi
storied apartment buildings –four to twelve stories
high built with concrete blocks. The structure is linear
with a small frontage. The apartments are also linear
within and have one room overlooking the front façade
and the other rooms are ventilated with narrow light wells.
The size of these apartments range from 40 m2 to 200 m2 .
All modern amenities have been included in
these buildings.
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