Architectural Drawing of a Garden

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fragmentary architectural drawing shows part of a small shrine (at upper right, in red) facing a body of water (at far left) and surrounded by trees within an enclosure wall of mud brick (in back). An orchard, also enclosed, runs parallel to the water. The measurements of the walls are written from right to left, and each begins with a hieroglyph in the shape of a forearm, which means "cubit," the Egyptian unit of length. This symbol is followed, in each case, by a number: an elongated semicircle stands for ten, and a stroke stands for one. Thus, the width of the orchard is thirty-two cubits.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art