ABSTRACT
The urban milieu in ancient Egypt shaped the lives of many Egyptians and canbe considered as a reflection of the society’s structure. This chapter will explore the major elements of towns and their development over time. The dry climate, which characterizes North Africa, facilitates a very good preservation of organic material and mud-bricks, the principal building material used for secular structures. The resulting rich archaeological evidence can be further complemented by artistic and textual records. Within the last 20 years much new data from excavations of various settlement sites have emerged, shedding fresh light on urban life, which forms a crucial element of our understanding of ancient Egyptian culture and society.
Several factors have to be considered before looking at the actual archaeological evidence, in order to understand the setting and difficulties related to the study of urbanism in ancient Egypt. Egyptian civilization developed in the Nile Valley where the annual Nile flood played a prominent role in the local economy since the agricultural fields were enriched with fertile Nile mud on an annual basis. Therefore, any place chosen for settlement had to be safe from flooding. Nowadays this phenomenon does not exist any more because the flood cycle has been stopped with the completion of the High Dam at Aswan in 1970.
