History of Architecture I (Ancient to Gothic): Why Greek Columns Bulge in the Middle
From pyramids and temples to domes, mosques, cathedrals and Inca walls: the ingenious solutions behind four thousand years of building.
Try 3 questions
1. Excavations of the workers' village at Giza suggest the pyramids were built mainly by whom?
- Organized laborers who were fed and paid
- Enslaved prisoners captured in foreign wars
- Foreign mercenaries hired from distant lands
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Answer: Organized laborers who were fed and paid
Bakeries, housing, medical care and workers' tombs near the pyramids point to rotating crews of Egyptian laborers rather than slave gangs.
2. How did Mesopotamian ziggurats differ in purpose from Egyptian pyramids?
- They raised a temple up, rather than sealing a tomb
- They served as fortresses during sieges
- They stored grain for the city in times of famine
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Answer: They raised a temple up, rather than sealing a tomb
A ziggurat was a stepped platform of solid mud brick with a shrine on top, reached by stairs; pyramids enclosed burial chambers.
3. Why did builders in ancient Mesopotamia rely almost entirely on mud brick?
- Religious law forbade the use of stone
- The river plains had little stone or timber
- Mud brick was stronger than any stone
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Answer: The river plains had little stone or timber
Between the Tigris and Euphrates, clay was everywhere while stone and big trees were scarce, so brick, sun-dried or fired, became the universal material.
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