2. Greek civilization
Climatic conditions
The climate is moderate, neither too cold nor too hot which favored outdoor life
The hot sun and sudden unexpected showers of rain led to construction of portico
, colonnades
Geological condition
Greece and its islands had plenty of building materials.
Unrivalled marble was plenty near Athens. Greeks made use of this marble to produce
finest sculpture
Geographical conditions
The country is mountainous and separated by hills. The area is surrounded on all 3 sides
by sea with innumerable islands.
The coast-line is indented with many natural harbors. They mainly depended for their
expansion of kingdom on colonization
Political condition
They were the first to develop democracy. Law were made by people to protect there
interest.
3. Religious condition
The religion of ‘Aegean’ was based on nature
worship
They had many deities in the form of
human, sacred bulls
RHEA mother goddess was supreme
The worship was carried on sacrificial alter, in
open courtyards or shrines
The Greek gods were conceived in human
form with human emotions
The Greek deities were
Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Athena, Ares, Artemis, Aphr
odite, Hermes, Hephaestus, Demeter, Dionysus
, Poseidon.`
Historical conditions
Aegean civilisation started in 3000 B.C.
Social economic condition
Trade and commerce, science and
astronomy were developed.
Shipping
Silver mining and silversmiths
4. Greeks encouraged literature, music, and
drama, art, architecture and town planning.
Hence they constructed
stadiums, polestar, theatres, basilica and agora
They constructed buildings suited to their out
door life like
administrative buildings,
theatres ,
agora etc
The Greek temples were usually oriented
towards east so the statues of deities were lit
by morning sun.
Trade included
Ivory and gems from Egypt
Elephants from India
Silk from China
Wool from countries surrounding
Greece
Purple dye from the eastern
countries
Grain from areas around the Black
Sea
5. Town planning
City was called as ‘polis’- community of families related by common
ancestors ideal polis 5000 people
Most of this size except few like Athens with 20,000 people
City grew around acropolis surrounding farm with agora or market
place, consisting of public buildings
Sports and recreation in gymnasium
Drama and festival in open theatre
Milesian religious site of great Apollo sanctuary was located 14 miles to
the south of the city.
Early Greek towns had an irregular street pattern, resulting from its
organic growth
Later Hellenistic towns such as Priene had a formal rectilinear pattern
The town was made up of only residential houses.
7. Milestos
Scientific town planning
Designed by Hippodamus.
Introduced grid pattern of road system.
The site was leveled peninsula jutting into the sea at the mouth of river
Hippocampus planned the grid iron pattern of road system to the general direction
of the peninsula rather than orienting it to the cardinal points of the compass
HOUSES
Greek sought privacy
Designed for comfort and on climatic condition
Rooms opened to central courtyard
Simple and equal to all without class discrimination
Paving of streets , water reservoirs, underground drainage
Sewage disposal and water supply system not present.
He divided the city into 3 district zones
To the north was the residential area, the agora at the centre and another was a place
for major temples. southern area as also residential.
Paving of streets , water reservoirs, and underground drainage were provided for
houses.
Sewage disposal and water supply distribution were not provided.
Town had walls surrounding them.
8. PRIENE
PLAN OF PRIENE
Orthogonal grid was used with regular blocks of houses measuring 120 * 160
feet
6 streets ran east- west
15 minor streets were stepped n-s
At center was rectangular agora
Over north of agora was temple of Athena and theatre
At south was stadium
9. OLYNTHUS
Olynthus is located on a peninsula that extends into the north
Aegean Sea.
It lies on two flat-topped hills, next to the Sandanus River, which
empties into the sea 2.5 km (about 1.5 miles) to the south.
The Greeks often chose to locate a city near a seaport for trade
reasons, but inland far enough to provide security from invasion.
The surrounding land is gently rolling, but marshland extends to
the south, and the large hills rise to the north.
The region is well-wooded in the hills, and has plenty of pasture
land and fertile soil for growing crops
10. Lay out in a grid form of rectangular
blocks, most containing two rows of five
houses. Between the two rows is a narrow
cobbled alley, which was probably for
drainage.
As ancient authors recommend, the houses
have maximum exposure to the south to take
advantage of light and warmth from the sun.
Long avenues follow the grid's main northsouth axis. Most streets and avenues are, on
average, 5 meters (17 feet) wide.
Other road is wider at 19 meters, and seems to
have been a main thoroughfare
The public center, or agora, of the town is
believed to be in the open space toward the
southwest on the North Hill.
Only three public buildings were found here,
in the northeast corner of the space: a stoa*, a
bouleterion, and a fountain house.
At the fountain house people came with
vessels to carry water to their homes.
The fountain was supplied by an underground
terracotta pipe that has been traced running
north across town, and is believed to tap a
fresh mountain source 12 km away
11. .
Shops tend to be concentrated in the west part of North Hill.
More surprising is the apparent lack of temples or shrines, which are
so closely connected with town life elsewhere.
Temples were often built on the most prominent spot in or around a
town; at Olynthus, the highest ground on North Hill is where the agora
sits, but no sanctuaries were found here
Difference between natural cities and Hippodameian cities
The main difference between organized cities and those which developed through a
natural process over a long period of time are the parallel streets and the use of a
grid in planning.
The grid developed into a rectangular system and was the result of purely functional
reasons.
The grid presents the simplest solution of layout and with the fewest complications.
Conclusion
By studying the layout of the cities which were developed through a natural process
and those which were planned according to the Hippodameian system we find that
they had one feature in common: the form of the ancient town was generally simple.
In both of the above mentioned categories one could easily move from any part of
the city to its center, first because one could see it from everywhere- distances being
such as to permit this- and because one could move directly towards it either by
taking one natural turn in the cities formed through natural growth or by a right angle
turn in the Hippodameian cities
13. Roman civilization
Climate condition
Climate of the area was varying. In the north
was temperate climate, in the south was
tropical and central region was cordial.
Geographic condition
Rome was founded near river Tiber and was
surrounded by seven mountains.
Geological condition
Stone, timber, iron and copper was used by
used by them .terra-cotta and bricks were
manufactured.
Religious condition
They had many gods, but had no strong religious feeling. Temples were built. Each
house had altar for family god. Ancestor worship also existed.
Political condition
They had organised government with laws. Colonial cities followed the shape of
military camps.
14. Historical condition
There was a unified government with strong army. Cites in Rome developed after 753
B.C. Far cities became part of Roman empire for self rule by all the people.
Socio economic condition
Romans were empire builders. They were great warriors, hard working and patriotic.
Difference in social status of people.
Decorated villas hint at the luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by wealthy Pompeian's.
The large house has one side slightly elevated where a theater, complete with a
stage and three entrances, was constructed. A domestic chapel attests to private
worship of the Egyptian divinity Isis. Marble was widely used in the construction of
Pompeii.
15. POMPEII
At the heart of the city
was the forum lined with
public buildings.
MAP OF POMPII
Pompeii had streets
forming irregular
rectangles.
Forum in Pompeii was
rectangular in shape and
dominated by a temple
of Jupiter at one end of
the access of the forum
16.
17. •Pompeii is an example of an roman town not made up of perfect right angles and
straight lines .
•While Pompeii's plan includes straight roads it lacks the nice right angles at street levels.
The footprint of the city does not follow proper geometry unlike other town of Rome
,and Pompeii's overall footprint is roughly trapezoidal in shape.
Great archaeologist Haverfield , attributes two possible causatives of this shape
•The previously existing italic-tribal element of the town and the other
• possible influence from the military that is ideal of trying to occupy a specific piece of
land despite its asymmetry.
•However Pompeii does not truly resembles cestrum planning but it’s a best fit fusion of
the rectangular ,cestrum plan with previous construction of overlaying physical
geometryr blocks of flats were built.
Cestrum was basically the heart of roman military fully capable of supporting the entire
army , including people and animals along with all their food and supply. This led to
derivation of cardo and decamanus.ideally cardo and decamanus are two major axes
Cardus E-W
Decumanus N-S
which should split the city into four equal quarters through straight lines running at right
angles to each other.Where the two converged was the forum .The rest of the space was
divided into squares in
18. Pompeian's used marble to decorate
floors, walls and fountains. Pompeii had many
fountains. The beautiful decorations and
ornamentations are evidence of the Romans’
esthetic talent. Fountains and wells outside the
houses were built so that even horses would
be able to drink from them. The water in the
city’s channels changed automatically, so that
it would always be fresh.
The city is filled with splendid portraits that are
found in private homes, in shops and in public
areas.
Archaeologists agree that not all treasures of
Pompeii have been fully discovered.
Substantial areas of the site still remain to be
excavated.
19. Public baths
Another proof of luxurious living is
the public baths. They were generally
made up of a suite of dressing rooms
and bathing chambers with hot, or
caldaria; warm, or tepid aria; and
cold, frigid aria baths next to a
gymnasium and a larger pool for
swimming.
22. TIMGAD
The site of the camp was surveyed
initially and basic governing lines
were drawn at the center
Streets ran north –south and east
–west.
City was extended by hundreds of
small farms in blocks.
It was laid out with rigid
orthogonal grid but as it
expanded the rigid grid pattern
was gradually eliminated .
PLAN OF TIMGAD
23.
24. PLANNING:
The interior of the town was divided by streets into
a chess-board pattern of small square house-blocks
;from north to south there were twelve such blocks
and from east to west eleven—not twelve, as is
often stated.
The possible total of 132 'insulae'
was, however, diminished by the space needed for
public buildings, though it is not easy to tell how
great this space was in the original town.
The excavations show, eight 'insulae' were taken up
by the Forum, four by the Theatre, three by the
various Baths, one by a Market, one by a Public
Library, and one by a Christian church.