photographs by: Phillip Cook As one of the oldest testaments of human civilization, the ancient ruins in Egypt demonstrate how cities, power, and monumental architecture develop simultaneously. The country’s initial growth during the protoliterate period (3000BC) occurred due to trade with Libyan tribes and Western Asia. In combination with trade, the Nile River served as the access route between agricultural settlements developing along its 500 mile stretch. During the New Kingdom (1600-1300BC), the presence of foreign invaders (the people of Hykos) enabled the Egyptian Empire to further expand to the greater part of Sudan, Palestine, and Syria.[1] Considering the contribution that trade and foreign relations had in the economic success of ancient Egypt, its history exemplifies the point made by Georg Simmel:
For in trade, which alone makes possible unlimited combinations, intelligence always finds expansions and new territories, an achievement which is very difficult to attain for the original producer with his lesser mobility and his dependence upon a circle of customers that can be increased only slowly.[2]
With political power, monuments such as the pyramids of Giza (outside of Cairo) were built in order to pay homage to the Pharaoh, the “divine and all powerful.”[3] Such building innovation influenced other developing civilizations due to correspondence with “strangers.” [4] In the same way, Egyptian architecture exemplifies its connection with other countries and foreign powers occupying Egypt. For a traveler visiting present day Cairo and the nearby city of Alexandria, one can observe Moorish architecture built during the expanse of the Ottoman Empire (i.e. Tulun Mosque), British architecture from the 1920-30’s constructed after 1882 when Britain gained control of the country, or modern European architecture designed by imported architects (i.e. Bibliotheca Alexandrina built by a Norwegian designer).[5]
For in trade, which alone makes possible unlimited combinations, intelligence always finds expansions and new territories, an achievement which is very difficult to attain for the original producer with his lesser mobility and his dependence upon a circle of customers that can be increased only slowly.[2]
With political power, monuments such as the pyramids of Giza (outside of Cairo) were built in order to pay homage to the Pharaoh, the “divine and all powerful.”[3] Such building innovation influenced other developing civilizations due to correspondence with “strangers.” [4] In the same way, Egyptian architecture exemplifies its connection with other countries and foreign powers occupying Egypt. For a traveler visiting present day Cairo and the nearby city of Alexandria, one can observe Moorish architecture built during the expanse of the Ottoman Empire (i.e. Tulun Mosque), British architecture from the 1920-30’s constructed after 1882 when Britain gained control of the country, or modern European architecture designed by imported architects (i.e. Bibliotheca Alexandrina built by a Norwegian designer).[5]
POSTED BY LINNEA COOK
[1] Spiro Kostof, A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 67.
[2] Georg Simmel, “The Stranger” (1908), in The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Translated and edited by Kurt H.
Wolff (New York: Free Press, 1950), 403.
[3] Kostof, A History of Architecture, 67.
[4] Georg Simmel, “The Stranger,” 408.
[5] Dr. Bill Quant, The Culture and Politics of Egypt (verbal lecture), University of Virginia: Semester at Sea, 2008.
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