ARCHITECTURAL TERMINOLOGY

1. General

 Squinch: a straight or arched structure across an interior angle of a square

tower to carry a superstructure such as a dome.

2. Prehistoric

 dolmen: also known as a portal tomb, portal grave, or quoit, is a type of

single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of three or more upright
stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table), although there are
also more complex variants. Most date from the early Neolithic period (4000
to 3000 BC). Dolmens were usually covered with earth or smaller stones to
form a barrow, though in many cases that covering has weathered away,
leaving only the stone "skeleton" of the burial mound intact.

 Menhir (French, from Middle Breton: men, "stone" and hir, "long"[1]), standing
stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be
found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size
can vary considerably, but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often
tapering towards the top. Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa
and Asia, but are most numerous in Western Europe; in particular in Ireland,
Great Britain and Brittany. There are about 50,000 megaliths in these
areas,[2] while there are 1,200 menhirs in northwest France alone.[3]
Standing stones are usually difficult to date, but pottery found underneath
some in Atlantic Europe connects them with the Beaker people. They were
constructed during many different periods across pre-history, erected as part
of a larger megalithic culture that flourished in Europe and beyond.

3. Islamic Architecture

 Mehrab: A niche in the wall of a mosque or a room in the mosque that

indicates the direction of Mecca.

 Muqarnas: An architectural ornamentation reminiscent of stalactites,

muqarnas developed around the middle of the 10th century in north eastern
Iran and almost simultaneously — but seemingly independently — in central
North Africa; they take the form of small pointed niches, stacked in tiers which
project beyond lower tiers, commonly constructed of brick, stone, stucco, or
wood, clad with painted tiles, wood, or plaster, and are typically applied to
domes, pendentives, cornices, squinches and the undersides of arches
and vaults.
4. Egyptian Architecture

 Mastaba: is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed,

rectangular structure with outward sloping sides that marked the burial site of
many eminent Egyptians of Egypt's ancient period. Mastabas were
constructed out of mud-bricks (from the Nile River) or stone. In the Old
Kingdom, kings began to be buried in pyramids instead of mastabas, although
non-royal use of mastabas continued for more than a thousand years.

 Pylon is the Greek term for a monumental gateway of an Egyptian temple

(Egyptian bxn.t in the Manuel de Codage transliteration[1]). It consists of two
tapering towers, each surmounted by a cornice, joined by a less elevated
section which enclosed the entrance between them.[2] The entrance was
generally about half the height of the towers. Contemporary paintings of
pylons show them with long poles flying banners.

5. Roman architecture

6. Window Types

7. Cloister

8. Barrel Vault

9. Cloister Vault

10. Conical Vault

11. Groin vault

12. Rampant Vault

13. List of Vaults

14. PlatonicSolids