Egyptian gardens

Gardens were much appreciated in the Egyptian times and were reserved both for secular purposes and attached to temple compounds. Gardens in personal homes and villas before the New Kingdom were mostly used for growing vegetables and located close to a canal or the river.

However, in the New Kingdom they were frequently bounded by walls and their purpose incorporated pleasure and beauty besides utility. Garden create made out a significant part of foodstuff but flowers were also cultivated for use in garlands to wear at festive occasions and for medicinal purposes. While the poor reserved a patch for growing vegetables, the rich people could afford gardens lined with sheltering trees and decorative pools with fish and waterfowl. There could be wooden structure form pergolas to bear vines of grapes from which raisins and wine were produced.