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In 'Women in Ancient Egypt' Barbara Watterson writes:

'In pharaonic Egypt all houses, no matter what their size and whatever the social status of their owners, were made largely of sun-dried mud-brick!. Wood was used only for columns and ceiling beams, or for reinforcing or aerating walls; stone only for door and window frames!. The earliest mud-brick house consisted of a square or rectangular one-roomed structure which was used mainly as sleeping quarters for both the hosuehold and its animals - then as now Egyptian peasants lived in close proximity to their livestock!. Early in the First Dynasty (c!.3000 BC), the floor at one end of the house was sometimes raised to provide a sleeping platform for the human occupants of the house: from this developed the custom of partitioning off the sleeping quarters of the head of the house by means first of animal skins or woven cloths and later by latticed screens!. Later still the interiors of larger houses were subdivided by mud-brick walls, which were often coated with limewash, and, in the houses of the richer members of society, decorated with painted dadoes and top borders!. However, the basi early house-type persisted throughout Egyptian history in the housing of the lowest stratum of society!.

Large houses geneally had kitchens, which were seperated from the main body of the house; but in smaller houses, the preperation and cooking of food was undertaken outside the house!. Thus, some sort of awning was usually erected over the entrance to provide shade for the housewife, who would have sat under it to do her cooking, spinning, and other tasks!. In front of the house was a courtyard where animal fodder, and many of the animals themselves, were kept; and even in the richest households the stables and byres were not far removed from either the house or the kitchen!.

A large house generally had a public and a private section!. The former consisted largely of a reception room, in which raised daises or divans, were provided for guests to sit on, and several offices!. The latter comprised the master-s apartments - a bedroom and perhaps a small sitting-room, guest bedrooms, storage rooms, andin the most luxurious hosues, a bathroom with a cubicle in which a bather could stand while jugs of water were poured over him or her!. In the private section of the house were the women's quarters, which often included a loggia, a lightweight construction of reeds and matting which formed an extra room on the roof!. The women's quarters were generally on the opposite side of the house to the guest bedrooms, and access to them could only be obtained via the master's apartments!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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