A palace is a building or group of buildings in which a royal family lives; the name is also occasionally used for the grand residence of other important state officials. Palace derives from the Palatine Hill, in Rome, where in ancient times many Roman emperors built their magnificent residences.
First Palaces
The ancient Egyptians are thought to have been the first people to build palaces. Although the earliest palace seems to date from the reign of King Amenemhat III (1855–1808 BCE) at Bubastis in the Delta region of northern Egypt, most royal palaces date from the later New Kingdom, including those of Amenhotep III at Malkata, of his son Akhenaten at Amarna, of Merneptah at Memphis, and of Ramses III at Medinet Habu. The palaces of Amenhotep III and Ramses III are located at sites in western Thebes, a settlement in southern Egypt beside the Nile River.
These first palaces have several features that are repeated in other, later ones. They seem to have been surrounded by walls. Within these walls many small rooms were arranged around courtyards and gardens that were open to the sky. The large number of rooms suggests that each palace was a self-contained community. It provided accommodation for members of the royal family as well as for their servants, ministers, guards, visitors, and friends.
Symbols of Power
In time palaces became more than just places of residence. They were physical reminders, or symbols, of the ruler’s power. For this reason each new ruler liked to build his or her own palace, with buildings as grand as possible. This custom reached a peak in ancient Rome. The palaces of the emperors of the first three centuries CE were more like small villages, spread over almost twenty-five acres (100,000 m2).
To add to the grandeur of some palaces, they were built on a raised platform above the surrounding buildings, as were the Assyrian palace at Khorsabad and the Persian palaces at Persepolis.
Little Cities
In many cultures the royal palace was a center of government as well as a residence. In some societies it also had a religious significance. In ancient Egypt, for example, the pharaoh (king) was regarded as semi-divine. Egyptian palaces often had a raised area from which the pharaoh could appear in public before his people. The palaces of eastern civilizations and of the Americas nearly all seem to have had governmental as well as religious and residential purposes.
The more functions a palace had, the more complicated it became. Perhaps the busiest of all was the Sacred Palace of Constantinople (Byzantium). It eventually covered some eighty-six acres (350,000 m2) and contained churches and schools as well as residences and meeting chambers.
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THE MALKATA PALACE |
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The palace of King Amenhotep III of Egypt, built at Thebes on the Nile, is one of the oldest and best-preserved palaces in the world. Built largely of mud brick, as were all Egyptian houses, its huge numbers of buildings once covered a gigantic area. It consisted of several residences, a temple, a hall, houses, outbuildings, and even an artificial lake with its own harbor. The king and his principal wife, Tiy, had separate apartments. There was also accommodation for more than 350 of the king’s minor wives and his many children and staff. Many of the walls were decorated with spectacular paintings of flowers and animals and inlaid with tiles and gilding.
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