Akademik

   The basic material used for construction in ancient Egypt. Nile clay mixed with sand and straw was poured into molds and dried to form bricks used in the building of most domestic buildings and palaces. Straw was used in the bricks found at Amarna. Mudbricks were also used in the lower courses of temple construction. They were placed on a bed of clean sand and topped by the stonestructure. As mudbrick buildings decay over time, only the bottom courses are generally preserved. The Egyptian word for brick was tob, which then passed into Arabic and Spanish to produce the modern word adobe.