Youssri Hussein

The project explores the expression of regional and cultural identity through architectural form in the cities of Roman Egypt. Consideration is given to the question of how ethnic and other perceptions of cultural and social identity influenced or were influenced by the decorative forms, types of construction, and spatial layouts of public and private architecture in the Roman period. The architecture of cities within the province are compared with each other and with architecture elsewhere in the empire, in order to understand more fully whether in architectural terms Egypt was really ‘a place apart’ and to what extent a local cultural identity was prominently expressed through its buildings. The thesis covers the period from the Roman annexation of Egypt in 31 B.C. to the end of the Tetrarchy.