Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt by Gaston Maspero (1846 - 1916) · LibriVox

02 - Architecture - Civil and Military - 2: Fortresses

·17 min·1 clip

Discover how ancient Egyptians built fortresses with alternating brick layers to withstand earthquakes.

This episode details the defensive architecture of ancient Egypt, focusing on fortress construction and urban fortifications. The text is Gaston Maspero's seminal archaeological guide, translated by Amelia B. Edwards and narrated by Timothy Ferguson. Maspero was a prominent French Egyptologist whose work systematically cataloged Egypt's ancient structures. Geographical and political factors necessitated walled towns to control desert passes and river narrows against Bedouins and rival nobles. The oldest fortresses are at Abydos, El-Kab, and Semneh, with Abydos containing a key Osiris sanctuary and trade route. The early fortress at Abydos, called Qom-ez-Sultan, is a parallelogram of crude brickwork measuring 410 by 223 feet with walls built in alternating horizontal and concave brick panels. This panel design may have been intended to resist earthquake shocks, though its strategic use ended when nobles filled it with graves during the 5th dynasty. A second, later fortress at Abydos featured long, straight outer walls without towers, designed to resist scaling, sapping, and gate assaults. Its gates were complex, involving a cutting in a covering wall, a small *place d'armes*, and a final postern in an awkward corner. A surprising insight is that early Egyptian siege tactics were limited to scaling walls, sapping, or bursting gates, which directly influenced fortress design. The walled city of El-Kab, from the ancient empire, had an irregular quadrilateral enclosure with walls where bricks were laid in undulating layers along some fronts. Temples inside were grouped in a second, concentric enclosure that served as a final keep for the garrison. In hilly areas like Kom-Ombo, engineers adapted walls to follow the terrain, creating projections resembling modern bastions. The fortresses at Semneh, built by Usertsen III at the second cataract, used projecting spurs instead of towers to allow flanking attacks against besiegers. These spurs were spaced so archers could sweep the intervening ground with arrows. The narrative reveals that new fortification methods, like stone walls with towers and double moats, were adopted from Canaanite and Hittite cities after the Asiatic campaigns of the 18th dynasty. The pharaohs called these frontier forts by the Semitic name "Migdols." A unique model of a Migdol survives in the memorial temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu, featuring an inclined basement to strengthen walls and rebound projectiles. The episode concludes by noting that the art of fortification showed little distinct progress after the 20th dynasty, remaining similar through the Greek period. The tone is purely educational and descriptive, presenting archaeological facts and structural analysis in a formal, academic style. This episode is delivered as a straightforward lecture from a historical text. Listeners interested in military history, ancient engineering, and archaeological methodology will find this episode richly detailed. Those seeking narrative storytelling or contemporary discussion might find its dense, technical descriptions less engaging.

As heard by us

Egyptian fortresses are framed as practical responses to geography and political pressure.

Maspero treats Egyptian fortresses as a story of geography and political pressure, moving from walled towns and village strongholds to Abydos, El-Kab, Semneh, and other sites.

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For a close look at how ancient Egyptians built walls, gates, and keeps against real threats.

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