Ancient addition to Hamilton Gardens

Visitors to Hamilton Gardens can now get an idea of one of the earliest garden types in the world with the new Ancient Egyptian Garden which opened this month.

It’s understood to be the first re-creation of this sacred garden type which dates back four thousand years.

Hamilton Gardens’ Ancient Egyptian addition. All images credited to Hamilton Gardens.

Hamilton Gardens Director Lucy Ryan says she’s excited to welcome visitors to this much anticipated feature.

“Archaeologists know a lot about what these ancient gardens looked like, but we believe Hamilton Gardens is the first to re-create an Ancient Egyptian Garden,” she says.

Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate says Hamilton Gardens continue to be a unique and internationally acclaimed attraction for Hamilton. (LAA previously featured the gardens when their mastermind landscape architect retired in 2020)

The Hamilton Gardens’ addition is understood to be the first re-creation of this sacred garden type.

“There’s no doubt Hamilton Gardens is one of our most treasured open spaces and the new Ancient Egyptian Garden is going to make a wonderful space even better.”

The Hamilton Gardens team says temple compounds all shared a similar, highly symbolic design.

“They were enclosed by high walls. The gardens featured a central, rectangular pool, with pergolas covered in grapevines, and rows of trees often linked with irrigation channels.”

The sacred type of garden design dates back four thousand years.

The team says each element of the temple court was symbolic.

“The massive walls on each side of the entrance reflected the two mountains on the horizon between which the sun would rise each day, symbolising rebirth.

“The garden represented the land of Egypt, celebrating the annual harvest and flooding of the Nile. At the far end of the garden was the temple itself, with its sacred inner sanctum off-limits to all but the highest priests.”

Every aspect of the garden’s design is highly symbolic.

The team says gardens in ancient Egyptian times were sacred spaces that very few ordinary Egyptians would ever have been allowed to enter.

“For ancient Egyptians, life on earth was a preparation for the dangerous journey into the afterlife. Temples and their gardens were a meeting place between heaven, earth, and the underworld.”

They say this garden was chosen to tell the story of how a belief in the afterlife has shaped human culture from the earliest times.

The Egyptian Garden is the earliest style at Hamilton Gardens.

The garden’s curators say temple gardens produced floral, vegetable and fruit offerings for sacred rituals. They grew the plants used in perfumes for anointing statues to the gods and garlands of flowers for religious processions.

The opening of the Ancient Egyptian Garden marks the earliest garden in Hamilton Gardens concept, telling the 4000-year story of gardens and civilisations from 2040BCE to now.

The Ancient Egyptian Garden will form part of the ‘Productive Garden collection’ at the Hamilton Gardens, a collection of productive gardens that each address aspects of the relationship between people and plants.