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Writing books that happen in ancient Egypt isn't easy. Every day I need to check something. From the shape of water jars to structure of houses or medical treatments and magical spells (which were often considered to be the same thing).
In my MA studies I am now concentrating in ancient Amarna (where Tutankhamun was born) and the lives of ordinary people.
One interesting thing are the royal palaces in Amarna - where Akhenaten and Nefertiti and their six daughters lived. When we hear the word "palace" most of us probably think of a big stone structure. This was not the case in ancient Egypt, though. Only the temples were built of stone. The palaces had some features made of stone (lintels, pillars...). The rest was built of mud-brick that was then plastered over and painted with bright colours.
One of the reasons was that the king / pharaoh did not stay put in one palace. He traveled up and down the Nile with his closest people and had several palaces all around the country. Often these palaces were built on purpose when the king announced where he was going next. The local governor was expected to take care of the comfort and nourishment of the royal retinue. And when the king left, these palaces were not kept in good condition.
Also the king had several "harem" palaces. His minor wives, female reatives and other dependants lived there. But not in a life of luxury. They were put to work - mostly they wove linen which was a big source of income for the royal house. These kenerets could be relatively modest buildings as well - and yes, made of mud brick.
Of course there was a "main" palace in what the king considered to be his capital - in Memphis, in Amarna, in Luxor. But even these were eventually abandoned and dismantled. Stone structures were taken and used elsewhere (in antiquity and in modern times as well). A whole pyramid was dismantled so that only its underground structures survived.
What people did not destroy, nature did. Nile inundations turned the mud bricks into mush. The villages were on top of hills (Tells) that were actually the remains of previous houses / villages. During the inundation the Nile valley was one big lake with the villages on their little islands and water was a real threat to the houses.
(Below is a picture of Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their daughters. I took this picture in 2014 in Berlin. It was most likely a private stela, an object of worship. Akhenaten demanded that he and his Great Royal Wife were to be worshiped, as they were the only ones who could directly approach the god Aten. They took the roles of the first children of the first god, Shu and Tefnut. Akhenaten and Nefertiti then, in turn, worshiped the Aten as intermediaries between the ordinary people and the god.)
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