A double temple: every hall and court built twiceThe Temple of Kom Ombo is an unusual double temple: its courts, halls and rooms are duplicated.
A flat-topped tomb with sloping sides, like a benchA mastaba is a flat-roofed tomb with inward sloping sides. The word is Arabic for bench.
A hall crowded with giant columns, a person tiny beside oneThe Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak had a roof held up by 134 columns in 16 rows.
A long avenue lined with sphinxes on both sidesThe Avenue of Sphinxes runs 2.7 km between Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple.
A ruined pyramid left standing as three giant stepsThe pyramid at Meidum partially collapsed in ancient times. By 1799 it had its present three steps.
A smooth pyramid that still wears its casing at the tipThe Pyramid of Khafre is the only one of the three at Giza that still has cladding at the top.
A temple gateway of two sloping towersAn Egyptian pylon is a monumental temple gate: two tapered towers with the doorway between them.
Show all 48 ideas (41 more)
Pyramids, temples and obelisks, continued
A temple of three terraces rising against cliffsThe temple at Deir el-Bahari has three massive terraces that rise from the desert floor into the cliffs.
An obelisk still lying in its quarry, crackedThe unfinished obelisk still lies in its quarry at Aswan. Cracks appeared in the granite and the work was abandoned.
The pointed capstone that once topped a pyramidA pyramidion is the capstone of an Egyptian pyramid; some were covered with plates of copper or gold.
Three column tops: a papyrus, a palm and a lotus budEgyptian capitals were carved to resemble plants: the papyrus, palm leaves and lotus buds and flowers.
Two seated stone giants alone in a fieldThe Colossi of Memnon are two statues of a pharaoh that reach 18 m with their stone platforms.
Statues and a mask 12
A block statue: a squatting figure packed into a cubeA block statue shows a man squatting, knees drawn up to his chest, arms folded on top of them.
A bronze cat sitting upright with a ring in its earThe Gayer-Anderson cat is bronze with gold ornaments, among them earrings and a nose ring.
A cross-legged scribe with a scroll across his lapThe Seated Scribe was discovered at Saqqara in 1850 and is now in the Louvre.
A double crown: a white crown set with a red oneThe pschent combined the White Crown of Upper Egypt and the Red Crown of Lower Egypt.
A gold burial mask inlaid with colored glass and stonesThe mask of Tutankhamun is two layers of gold weighing 10.23 kg, inlaid with glass and gemstones.
A queen's painted bust with a tall flat-topped crownThe Nefertiti Bust is painted, stucco-coated limestone, believed to have been made in 1345 BC.
A royal head in a striped cloth with a cobra at the browThe nemes was a striped head cloth worn by pharaohs; the uraeus is the upright cobra on it.
A shelf of little worker figurines, each a copy of the lastUshabti were figurines placed in tombs among the grave goods, meant to act as servants.
A small blue hippo standing on four short legsA faience hippopotamus of the Middle Kingdom, nicknamed William, is in a museum in New York.
A sphinx with a ram's head and a small king under its chinAt Karnak each ram-headed sphinx, a criosphinx, is fronted by a full-length statue of the pharaoh.
A wooden man walking with a staff, eyes that seem aliveThe statue of Kaaper is sycamore wood, 112 cm tall, with eyes of rock crystal and copper.
A wooden toy-size boat and a herd of cattle from a tombThe tomb of Meketre held wooden models of daily life, with figurines of ships and cattle.
Tomb painting and reliefs 12
A carving sunk below the wall's surface, edges in shadowSunk relief, where the image is cut into a flat surface, was mainly restricted to ancient Egypt.
A color chart of the four Egyptian color wordsThe language had four basic color terms: black, white or silver, green or blue, and red, orange or yellow.
A false door: a doorway of stone that never opensA false door is a carved or painted image of a door, common in the tombs of ancient Egypt.
A hunter on a reed skiff among marsh birdsA painting from the tomb of Nebamun, now in the British Museum, shows him fowl hunting in the marshes.
A lotus flower colored in Egyptian blueEgyptian blue, used in Egypt for thousands of years, is considered the first synthetic pigment.
A painted garden with a pond in the middle of itThe best-known paintings from the tomb of Nebamun include a pond in a garden.
A person laid out on a ladder of eighteen fist-high stepsFigures kept a standard set of proportions: 18 fists from the ground to the hairline.
A seated statue seen straight on, both sides matchingFrontality and axiality are named among the main principles of Egyptian art.
A tall tomb owner beside servants half his sizeEgyptian art uses hierarchical proportions: the size of a figure shows its importance.
A walking figure: face turned sideways, shoulders square onEgyptian painting shows the head from a profile view and the body from a frontal view.
Farm work in three scenes: plowing, harvesting, winnowingThe tomb of Menna has a well preserved scene of grain production with these stages.
Six geese on one ground line, a trio walking each wayThe Meidum Geese scene shows six geese, three pointing left and three right, one of each trio feeding.
Jewelry, games and daily objects 12
A broad collar of bead rows curving across the chestThe usekh was a broad collar necklace of tubular or teardrop beads arranged in curved rows.
A chest ornament hung from a necklacePectorals were jewelry, often like a brooch, worn mostly by richer people and the pharaoh.
A flat stone palette cut in the shape of a fishStone palettes for grinding cosmetic pigments are typical of Predynastic Egypt; fish, turtle and bird forms were common.
A game board of thirty squares in three rowsA senet board is a grid of 30 squares, called houses, arranged in three rows of ten.
A measuring rod marked in palms and fingersThe royal cubit was 7 palms of 4 fingers each, which makes 28 digits.
A rattle with a handle and a U-shaped metal frameThe sistrum is a rattle used by the ancient Egyptians: a handle and a U-shaped metal frame.
A round game board shaped like a coiled snakeMehen was a board game of ancient Egypt. Its board shows a coiled snake whose body is divided into spaces.
A round hand mirror of polished copperMirrors of polished copper were made in ancient Egypt from around 3000 BCE.
A small bowl glazed bright blue-greenEgyptian faience is a quartz ceramic with a bright glassy coating, usually blue or green.
A star-sighting bar with a weighted string hanging from itThe merkhet, a bar with a plumb line on a wooden handle, was an Egyptian tool for telling time at night by the stars.
An arched harp: strings stretched across one long curveIn an arched harp the neck forms one continuous arc with the body. Egyptian art commonly showed them by 2500 BC.
Jar lids shaped as heads: a person, a baboon, a jackalCanopic jars were burial vessels. Their lids took the form of heads, human and animal.
How this list was compiled: Original list written for Draw This Next on 2026-10-02: real buildings, statues, tomb paintings and small objects of ancient Egypt to draw, at three levels. The titles are our own descriptions and the easy, medium and hard groups are our own estimates. Gods, burials and temples are named only as the things an art lesson draws; no belief is explained. Every fact in a hint was checked on 2026-10-02 (the stone palette, the snake game board, the arched harp and the star-sighting bar on 2026-10-03) against the English Wikipedia article for the thing drawn (text under CC BY-SA 4.0): Art of ancient Egypt, Pyramid of Khafre, Pyramidion, Meidum, Pylon (architecture), Great Hypostyle Hall, Temple of Kom Ombo, Avenue of Sphinxes, Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Ancient Egyptian architecture, Capital (architecture), Mastaba, Colossi of Memnon, Unfinished obelisk, The Seated Scribe, Block statue, Nemes, Uraeus, Mask of Tutankhamun, Nefertiti Bust, Gayer-Anderson cat, William the Faience Hippopotamus, Sphinx, Ushabti, Pschent, Kaaper, Meketre, Tomb of Nebamun, Nefermaat (for the Meidum Geese), Relief, False door, Egyptian blue, TT69, Cosmetic palette, Mehen (game), Usekh collar, Arched harp, Senet, Sistrum, Pectoral (Ancient Egypt), Mirror, Egyptian faience, Canopic jar, Merkhet, Cubit, each at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the article name. Licence: own work
How it works
Egyptian art follows rules that are easy to copy: a head in profile on a body seen from the front, and bigger figures for more important people. These are real buildings, statues, paintings and objects, each with one checked fact.
Read the full guide
Egyptian art ideas, sorted by kind
Pyramids, temples and obelisks are the buildings, from the capstone of a pyramid to a hall of 134 columns. Statues and a mask holds the scribe, the cat and the blue hippo. Tomb painting and reliefs has the rules of the style and scenes such as six geese in a row. Jewelry, games and daily objects is the small things.
Start with the easy ones
The page opens on Easy. It holds simple shapes: the capstone of a pyramid, a round mirror, a board of thirty squares, six geese in a row. For ancient Egypt art ideas with more work in them, choose Hard.
Questions and answers
What are easy things to draw from Egypt?
Six geese walking on one ground line; the pointed capstone of a pyramid; a round hand mirror of polished copper; and a senet board of 30 squares in three rows of ten.
How did Egyptian artists draw people?
With the head in profile and the body from the front. Size showed importance, so a tomb owner is larger than the servants. Figures kept standard proportions: the hairline was 18 fists up.
What are some Egyptian art project ideas for school?
Draw one real thing and write its fact under it as a label: the pyramid at Meidum, which now stands as three steps, or a broad collar of bead rows. Every idea here comes with its fact.