Architectural Provision against Heat in the Orient

Pottery Soul houses and Offering Trays at the Agricultural Museum of Cairo

“…He also mentioned, that the most primitive house-unit, as given by the hieroglyphic signs (O1) pr, was a typical component which was found developed in the soul house models of the late Old Kingdom and the early Middle Kingdom as a pillared portico, sometimes also on columns, in front of the rooms, a courtyard, a water tank, a stairway rises in one corner of the yard to the terrace and a shelter raised at the rear of an open yard facing north to be used during the hot summer nights. 44 Therefore, its features are copied from the real houses during this period.…”