Nubian vault (centring-free mud-brick vault)
Bóveda nubia de adobe sin cimbra
- Date
- c. 1250 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Ramesseum, Luxor, Egypt
- Credited to
- Builders of Ramesside Egypt and Nubia
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A mud-brick barrel vault whose courses lean against an end wall so that each ring stands on its own, needing no centring or timber. The vaulted storerooms of the Ramesseum are the best-preserved ancient example.
Pitched-brick courses also occur in Mesopotamia and Nubia, and the technique is probably older than the Ramesseum; the date is that of the clearest surviving examples.
What it led to
- earth vaults and domes in timber-poor regions
- modern revival by Hassan Fathy at New Gourna (1945-48)
- basis of contemporary earth architecture in Egypt and the Sahel