The fortifications
The fortifications
| The fortresses together with the temples and with the
pyramids, form
another great chapter of the Egyptian architecture. They were already realized in the pre-dynastic epoch, in the shape of a rectangular wall with bastions, to defend the settlements as Ieracompoli and Abido, and they were perfected later, in the Middle Reign, to defend the southern border and the area in Suez. They were great and impressive works: when they were built on a flat surface, they had a rectangular plan, otherwise, they followed in polygons the edges of the rise, as in Semna, in Upper Nubia. They were made by a massive, sometimes triple, boundary walls, with angular towers and bastions, ditches and embankments. There was always a covered passage to exit to get water supplies. It doesn’t seem that the Egyptians knew about siege machines; they took the forts opening gaps, with hoes, in the raw brick walls or going over them with ladders. During the sieges, wide and curved shields defended the attackers, under the walls, from the archers above. |
