The background is not a cliff or a termite hill, its a mud brick house/compound probably a generation or 2 old. The mud brick wears slowly as it almost never rains. Location is a small village across the Nile from Luxor/Karnak, about halfway between the Nile and the Valley of the Kings.
Modern Egyptians irrigate the crops, here sugar cane and wheat.
Wall of a new house/compound underconstruction. A mix of regular mud brick and firebrick is used.
Mud brick is made in a pit (inside the house that is under construction) mixing the straw/sand/mud literally by walking on it. Firebrick to be used as part of the construction is piled to the side.