Triangular squinches angle up from the corners, the beginnings of a dome that never materializes.
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The still extant Café Central had an interior like a miniaturized San Marco, with hallucinatory Byzantine columns and swooping enclosing spandrels and squinches.
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This structure is the principal feature unique to other major mosques in Egypt. Above the prayer hall sits a brick one-bay dome carried on four brick squinches. A large brick dome supported by brick squinches is also situated atop the mausoleum of Kujuk. However, the latter has a pendentive below each squinch.
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It is supposed to have rested upon large cross beams. Although architecture in the region would decline following the movement of the capital to Iraq under the Abbasids in 750, mosques built after a revival in the late 11th century usually followed the Umayyad model, especially that of the Mosque of Damascus. Domed examples include the mosques at Sarmin (1305-6) and al-Bab (1305). The typical Damascus dome is smooth and supported by a double zone of squinches: four squinches create an eight sided transition that includes eight more squinches, and these create a sixteen-sided drum with windows in alternate sides.
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The mausoleum is the earliest surviving square-shaped building with a single dome in Bengal. The brick structure has thick walls and an octagon-shaped interior, which together minimize the size of squinches required. The mausoleum has a smoothly curved cornice, terracotta ornamentation on the walls, and engaged towers at the corners. The cornice supports the hemispherical dome on square squinches.
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Another is to use arches to span the corners, which can support more weight. A variety of these techniques use what are called "squinches". A squinch can be a single arch or a set of multiple projecting nested arches placed diagonally over an internal corner. Squinches can take a variety of other forms, as well, including trumpet arches and niche heads, or half-domes.
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Both mausoleum domes have simple round squinches in the transition zone between the square chamber and the round base of the dome above rather than the more typical muqarnas- sculpted pendentives found in Mamluk architecture. The squinches nonetheless have some decoration by using two-coloured masonry with a radiating motif. Other than this, the mausoleums are unadorned. A doorway off the larger mausoleum leads to an irregularly-shaped room sandwiched between other chambers in the floor plan.
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The squinches have converted the second storey into an octagonal conformation. Piercing on each side of them provide ventilation. No monument have been built over the grave. There is also no tombstone.
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It spread to the Romanesque architecture of western Europe, one example being the Normans' 12th-century church of San Cataldo, Palermo in Sicily. This has three domes, each supported by four doubled squinches.
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Domes were also built as part of Muslim palaces, throne halls, pavilions, and baths, and blended elements of both Byzantine and Persian architecture, using both pendentives and squinches. The origin of the crossed-arch dome type is debated, but the earliest known example is from the tenth century at the Great Mosque of Córdoba. In Egypt, a "keel" shaped dome profile was characteristic of Fatimid architecture. The use of squinches became widespread in the Islamic world by the tenth and eleventh centuries.
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Other architectural innovations and styles were few, such as the four-centered arch, and a dome erected on squinches. Unfortunately, much was lost due to the ephemeral nature of the stucco and luster tiles.
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With a triple-domed portico, the central area is also covered with a dome set on squinches. Decoration is restricted to the mihrab and doorway which are covered in inlaid marble and inscriptions.Petersen, 2002, p. 232.
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The Villa Gordiani also contains remains of an oval gored dome. The Mausoleum of Diocletian uses small arched squinches of brick built up from a circular base in an overlapping scales pattern, called a "stepped squinches dome". The scales pattern was a popular Hellenistic motif adopted by the Parthians and Sasanians, and such domes are likely related to Persian "squinch vaults". In addition to the mausoleum, the Palace of Diocletian also contains a rotunda near the center of the complex that may have served as a throne room.
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A seventh dome is located in the normal position for a Romanesque dome on squinches: over the crossing. Other examples of this use over naves are rare and scattered. One is the large church of Saint Hilaire at Poitiers, which seems to have been influenced by Le Puy Cathedral. In 1130, its wide nave was narrowed with additional piers to form suitable square bays, which were vaulted with octagonal domes whose corner sides over trumpet squinches were so narrow that the domes resemble square cloister vaults with beveled corners.
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When the mosque was originally built this technique of using plain squinches was considered classical. Two stone domes are located over the mausoleum of Tankizbugha and another stone dome is built above the tomb of Umm as-Sultan al-Sha'ban.
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This now is covered with a cream-color stucco layer. The four arches carrying the squinches of the central, original, sanctuary dome are also made up of red bricks except for the one toward the east which is of marble construction.
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Much admired in the Renaissance, its dome collapsed in 1573 and was rebuilt with the present cloister vault. Documentary evidence indicates that the Romanesque dome of San Lorenzo was a thin hemisphere of light material over a cube of space about 23.8 meters (40 Milanese braccia) on each side. The dome was supported by four corner squinches resting on the four exedrae arches of the square space with a further eight smaller squinches between each of them to create a sixteen-sided base. It was covered on the exterior by a cylindrical or polygonal drum and timber roof.
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The Samanid Mausoleum in Transoxiana dates to no later than 943 and is the first to have squinches create a regular octagon as a base for the dome, which then became the standard practice. The Arab-Ata Mausoleum, also in Transoxiana, may be dated to 977-78 and uses muqarnas between the squinches for a more unified transition to the dome. Cylindrical or polygonal plan tower tombs with conical roofs over domes also exist beginning in the 11th century. The earliest example is the Gonbad-e Qabus tower tomb, 57 meters high and spanning 9.7 meters, which was built in 1007.
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The central dome is flanked by four corner domes which are plastered with lime masonry brick. While the central dome is nearly plain, in the interior the four corners are provided with a series of squinches. The outer plinth shows decorated mouldings.
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These squinches are the arches built diagonally across the corners > of a square to create this transition from the square to the spherical base > of the dome. However, the technique of erecting domes on squinches did not > prove strong enough when the domes were excessively high or had too large a > radius: such structures could not withstand natural calamities. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Makli Hills in Thatta, Sindh Province, Pakistan. The Makli Necropolis, near Thatta, Sindh province is described in the Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial as: > The most common form of Muslim funerary monument is a square cube-like > building covered with a dome.
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The old part is the prayer hall, has an entrance to the north. This hall is square, covered with a dome. The dome rests on large squinches, which are supported by corbels. According to Petersen, the domed prayer hall is consistent with an 18th-century construction date.
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Squinch in the Palace of Ardashir in Fars, Iran Squinches may be formed by masonry built out from the angle in corbelled courses, by filling the corner with a vise placed diagonally, or by building an arch or a number of corbelled arches diagonally across the corner.
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Stairs leading to the hall of the second store have been carved on the cliff. A spherical cupola with a pointed top has squinches decorated with plant ornaments. There is a fragment of a ligature, indicating a date – the year 1402, and also a part of the architect’s name – “…the son of ustad Haji” – in one of the squinches. Many legends and myths are connected to this place. Diri Baba mausoleum was decorated with a mosaic and effective ligature by a calligraphist called “Dervish”. There is a unique monument – a two-storeyed mausoleum-mosque of the 15th century called “Diri-Baba”, located opposite an ancient cemetery – on the way from Baku to Shamakhi.
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Internally, the squinches of the zone of transition developed into miniaturized and pointed versions that were used row upon row over the entire expanded zone and bordered above and below by plain surfaces. Bulbous cupolas on minarets were used in Egypt beginning around 1330, spreading to Syria in the following century.
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Ribs radiate out from the center. Figures in the squinches are angels with realistic expressions and animated eyes. There are 212 columns in Conques with decorated capitals. The capitals are decorated with a variety of motifs including palm leaves, symbols, biblical monsters and scenes from the life of Sainte-Foy.
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Above the nave arcade, small rounded lancet- shaped windows pierce the stone walls. The windows are evenly spaced over the arch openings. A dome resting on squinches is over the crossing in front of the altar. The dome has an oculus opening at the top and small rounded lancet windows in the drum.
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The tomb of the Delhi Sultanate ruler, Iltutmish, a second Sultan of Delhi (r. 1211–1236 AD), built 1235 CE, is also part of the Qutb Minar Complex in Mehrauli, New Delhi. The central chamber is a 9 mt. sq. and has squinches, suggesting the existence of a dome, which has since collapsed.
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The detailed stucco decoration on the mausoleum exterior. The mausoleum chamber, with muqarnas squinches and Arabic inscriptions in stucco. Most of the inscriptions are from the Maqama of al- Hariri, rather than from the Qur'an. The building's entrance from the street is through a doorway under a canopy of stone-carved decorations, including .
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There are some muqarnas domes of the Iraqi type, but most domes are slightly pointed hemispheres on either muqarnas pendentives or double zones of squinches and made of masonry, rather than brick and plaster. The domes cover single bay structures or are just a part of larger constructions. Syrian mausoleums consist of a square stone chamber with a single entrance and a mihrab and a brick lobed dome with two rows of squinches. The dome at the Silvan Mosque, 13.5 meters wide and built from 1152–1157, has an unusual design similar to the dome added to the Friday Mosque of Isfahan in 1086-1087: once surrounded by roofless aisles on three sides, it may have been meant to be an independent structure.
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69Alexandre Papadopoulo, Islam and Muslim art, ed. Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1979, p. 507 At the same time, the mihrab's ribbed dome was raised on squinches. Around 862–863, Emir Abu Ibrahim enlarged the oratory, with three bays to the north, and added the cupola over the arched portico which precedes the prayer hall.
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The dome is carried on squinches that spring from the tops of stone pilasters, two on each wall. The qibla wall has three mihrabs. The use of black basalt for the central mihrab was a common practice during the sixteenth century. It is decorated with beautiful, intricate patterns composed of an ornamental hanging lamp motif.
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The dome of Siena Cathedral. In Italy, the dome of Siena Cathedral had an exposed profile as early as 1224, and this feature was retained in its reconstruction around 1260. The dome has two shells and was completed in 1264. It is set over an irregular hexagon with squinches to form an irregular twelve-sided base.
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The interiors of the liwan are adorned with watercolour paintings depicting stylized floral designs. The dado panels, spandrels of arch and soffits are painted profusely. Unlike other monuments, where domes are supported on squinches, here corbelled pendentives support the dome. The Buland Darwaza and the Tomb of Salim Chishti are also a part of the mosque complex.
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The medallions on the spandrels of these arches contain floral designs inlaid with blue and green tiles, a feature of Moorish architecture. The mosque stands on a platform. Its interior is plain, and the floor is simply plastered. The lateral domes are built on pendentives, while the central dome rises from squinches on a 16-sided drum.
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The building can be accessed through three doorways, all in the rectangular western arm. The projecting apse of the sanctuary is flanked by two apsed pastophoria. The transition from the rectangular bay to the dome circle is effected through squinches. The drum of the dome is octagonal, pierced with four windows and adorned with decorative arches.
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The sanctuary is flanked by pastophoria on either side, connecting to the corresponding naves with arched openings. Both are covered with domical vaults, supported by four squinches. The sanctuary is separated from the rest of the bay by an ornate wood-engraved iconostasis installed in 1781. Fragments of the late medieval frescoes are visible in part of the interior.
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The Katholikon is the earliest extant domed-octagon church, with eight piers arranged around the perimeter of the naos (nave). The hemispherical dome (without a drum) rests upon four squinches which make a transition from the octagonal base under the dome to the square defined by the walls below.Linda Safran. Heaven on Earth: Art and the Church in Byzantium. .
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The transition from the square bay to the dome circle is achieved through squinches and pendentives. The church can be entered through three symmetrically arranged doors in the west, south, and north arms. The doors used to be embellished with semicircular pilasters and arches running above them. The exterior of the dome is adorned with a blind arch supported by a paired colonettes.
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It was built on an octagonal plan on squinches and has on its exterior ajimezate windows with Plateresque decorations. Later, in 1587, with the creation of the diocese of Teruel, the building was promoted to the status of Cathedral and consecrated as such. Finally, in 1909, the facade was constructed in Neo-mudéjar style based on a design of Pau Monguió.
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The interior of the octagonal arched dome is decorated with very distinguishing carvings bordered by a Kufic freeze inscribed with the name of the creator, Al ben Youssef. The squinches at the corner of the dome are covered with muqarnas. The kiosk has motifs of pine cones, palms and acanthus leaves which are also replicated in the Ben Youssef Madrasa.
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It is of brick faced with stone, supported on brick squinches built into the Norman tower. At high, the spire is the second tallest in England; only that of Salisbury Cathedral is taller at . The total length of the building is . Along with Salisbury and Ely Cathedrals, Norwich lacks a ring of bells, which makes them the only three English cathedrals without them.
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It was the largest dome north of the Alps at that time. Venice, Southern Italy and Sicily served as outposts of Middle Byzantine architectural influence in Italy. The Great Mosque of Córdoba contains the first known examples of the crossed-arch dome type. The use of corner squinches to support domes was widespread in Islamic architecture by the 10th and 11th centuries.
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It has three mihrabs with the central mihrab being the largest in size and projecting outwards. It has a hemispherical dome with frontal arches. There are also squinches and half domes. It is distinctly different from the Khan Jahan style mosque in its exterior decorations, particularly the east façade, which depicts four rectangular panels bordered by foliated scrolls with merlons having plant motifs.
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The interior of the octagonal arched dome is decorated with distinctive carvings bordered by a Kufic frieze inscribed with the name of its patron, Sultan Ali ibn Yusuf. The squinches at the corners of the dome are covered with muqarnas. The kiosk has motifs of pine cones, palms and acanthus leaves which are also replicated in the Ben Youssef Madrasa.
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All these are bordered by two rectangular frames, the space between which is filled with a four-petalled mesh in terracotta. To each side of the mihrab is a multifoil arched niche in a rectangular recess. The north and south walls each have two similar, but smaller niches. Squinches spring from brick pilasters to support the base of the dome.
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Later developments of this feature would include additional domes oriented axially to the mihrab dome. Byzantine workmen built the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus and its hemispherical dome for al Walid in 705. The dome rests upon an octagonal base formed by squinches. The dome, called the "Dome of the Eagle" or "Dome of the Gable", was originally made of wood but nothing remains of it.
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This building has a prayer hall covered with cross- vaults, with a dome resting on squinches over the area in front of the mihrab. It has a courtyard with a tall square minaret. It is not clear whom the mashhad commemorates. Two other important mashads from the Fatimid era in Cairo are those of Sayyida Ruqayya and Yayha al-Shabib, in the Southern Cemetery.
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The square room on the ground floor was built with a round shape and brickworks were done around the corners. To give the room an octagonal shape, squinches were given around the roof corners. The eight corners of the octagon was slanted gradually to make the dome look like the bud of a lotus ( kumud kali). The peak of this dome is 27.13 m above the ground.
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The tower house (caiseal) rises to the chemin de ronde, off which are four evenly spaced machicolations. It is five storeys tall with slit windows and large fireplaces on the second and fourth levels. A hole in the north wall on the fourth level leads to a secret chamber set into the walls. Originally the top level was covered by a conical timber roof carried on squinches.
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The corners of the dome transition into the square space of the walls with the help of muqarnas-carved squinches. The mosque's main chandelier, according to one source, was installed in 1280, weighs 715 pounds, and has 287 candlesticks. It hangs in the central aisle in front of the mihrab, and is considered by some to be one of the best Marinid-era examples of its kind.
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This building has a prayer hall covered with cross-vaults, with a dome resting on squinches over the area in front of the mihrab. It has a courtyard with a tall square minaret. It is not clear whom the mashhad commemorates. Two other important mashads from the Fatimid era in Cairo are those of Sayyida Ruqayya and of Yayha al-Shabib, in the Fustat cemetery.
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Domes in pre-Mughal India have a standard squat circular shape with a lotus design and bulbous finial at the top, derived from Hindu architecture. Because the Hindu architectural tradition did not include arches, flat corbels were used to transition from the corners of the room to the dome, rather than squinches. In contrast to Persian and Ottoman domes, the domes of Indian tombs tend to be more bulbous.
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Three horizontal units laid over eight vertical posts that are chamfered constitute the plinth. Squinches and muqarnas are seen in the solid interior walls of the tomb and these provide the basic support to the octagonal spherical dome of the tomb. The dome with a square plan - in length and height - has a diameter of . The maximum height of the tomb is on its face overlooking the reservoir.
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The mosque portico was rebuilt during the 1940 restoration. A single minaret with a single balcony rises above it, adjoining the southwest corner of the prayer hall. Entered through a marble portal on its northwest wall, the prayer hall is surmounted by a single dome, which measures about eight meters in diameter. The transition to the dome is achieved with four squinches over an octagonal drum pierced with four arched windows.
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Mudéjar lantern tower The lantern tower was designed in 1537 by the master Juan Lucas "Botero", who had been the architect of the lantern tower on Mudejar squinches of the Seo of Zaragoza and of the Cathedral of Tarazona. It was carried out in 1538 by the master builder Martín de Montalbán. The lantern tower illuminated the new main altarpiece (1536), a Renaissance masterpiece of the sculptor Gabriel Yoly.
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These supports lack any capitals but have squinches or consoles at their summit, leading to the optical effect that the arches seem to grow integrally out of the piers. By placing the lateral galleries far away, he increased the three-dimensional effect. The many windows in the screen walls flood the interior with light. The buttressing semi-domes are set in the four corners of the square under the dome.
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Domes were smooth or ribbed and had a characteristic Fatimid "keel" shape profile. Domes in Romanesque architecture are generally found within crossing towers at the intersection of a church's nave and transept, which conceal the domes externally. They are typically octagonal in plan and use corner squinches to translate a square bay into a suitable octagonal base. They appear "in connection with basilicas almost throughout Europe" between 1050 and 1100.
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The mosque is a handsome Panchmukhi (five-arched) structure with and a high iwan which conceals the dome on top of the central nave, which is supported on kite-shaped pendentives and net squinches. There are double-aisled wings on either side of the central nave. The brick and mortar building had been plastered originally and one can still see that its facade was once adorned with glazed tiles.
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At the top of the bay there is a trefoil-headed panel displaying the Dorchester coat of arms. The cast-iron columns and the other metalwork in the aisled Victorian Hall were cast in Frome by Edward Cockey & Sons. On the first floor there is an oriel window in the corner, above carved squinches. The door is to the left of the bay, displaying three coats of arms above.
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Muqarnas are elaborately carved ceilings to semi-domes, often used in mosques. They are typically made of stucco (and thus do not have a structural function), but can also be of wood, brick, and stone. They are characteristic of Islamic architecture of the Middle Ages from Spain and Morocco in the west to Persia in the east. Architecturally they form multiple tiers of squinches, diminishing in size as they rise.
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1140s), and Zisa, Palermo (12th century). The church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti has five domes in a T-shaped arrangement and the Church of San Cataldo has three domes on squinches, with both showing clearly Islamic influence. The church of Santi Pietro e Paolo d'Agrò in Casalvecchio Siculo, Sicily, has two domes from around 1130, with a circular-base dome over the nave and an octagonal-base dome over the altar.
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The oval shape appears to have been a practical solution to rectangular crossing bays. The use of pendentives to support domes in the Aquitaine region, rather than the squinches more typical of western medieval architecture, strongly implies a Byzantine influence. Between the Garonne and Loire rivers there are known to have been at least seventy-seven churches whose naves were covered by a line of domes. Half of them are in the Périgord region.
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50 - 51 As mausoleums with dome were temple-type buildings, people used to come and pay visit to buried and hold religious ceremonies in such places. Therefore, these type of mausoleums were also used as a mosque. Internal tomb part of the mausoleum square shaped according to structure of it and through squinches in the corners it turns into an octagon. Eight-edged prism on the octagon is covered with pyramidal tent.
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The transition from the square bay to the circle of the dome was effected through squinches. The side apses communicated openly with the sanctuary and the central bay rather than forming individual chambers. Apart from the 8th-century Georgian foundation inscription, there is another, heavily damaged, almost illegible Georgian inscription in the southern façade and, next to it, a fragment in Armenian identifying the Armenian catholicos Gevorg III Loretsi (r. 1069–1072).
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Prior to the pendentive's development, builders used the device of corbelling or squinches in the corners of a room. Pendentives commonly occurred in Orthodox, Renaissance, and Baroque churches, with a drum with windows often inserted between the pendentives and the dome. The first experimentation with pendentives began with Roman dome construction in the 2nd–3rd century AD, while full development of the form came in the 6th-century Eastern Roman Hagia Sophia at Constantinople.
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Persian domes from different historical eras can be distinguished by their transition tiers: the squinches, spandrels, or brackets that transition from the supporting structures to the circular base of a dome. Drums, after the Ilkanate era, tend to be very similar and have an average height of 30 to 35 meters from the ground. They are where windows are located. Inner shells are commonly semi-circular, semi- elliptical, pointed, or saucer shaped.
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The palace is approached from the eastern side. A courtyard, originally in a rectangular shape now seen in ‘U’ shape, is in the center of the palace. The palace has carved impressive square chhatris (six of them with different numbers of pillars – six, eight and twelve) or towers in the corners and the centre, ornamented with beautiful squinches in different chambers and walls (pictures in the gallery). The domed pavilion over the central gate is decorated with blue tiles.
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Squinches supporting the dome, interior view The roof is barrel vaulted. Four columns support the rib vaulted tambour and there are two more columns at the western part of the church. At the eastern façade above the central window one can observe a carving of Christ with the gospel of St. John and two angels below. At the southern façade, at each side of the central window there are two angels and traces of another figure, probably Christ.
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Both are cross-in-square churches with five small domes on drums in a quincunx pattern and date either to the period of Byzantine rule or after. The church architecture of Sicily has fewer examples from the Byzantine period, having been conquered by Muslims in 827, but quincunx churches exist with single domes on tall central drums and either Byzantine pendentives or Islamic squinches. Very little architecture from the Islamic period survives on the island, either.
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Ganjali Khan Bathhouse Built in 1611, the Ganjali bathhouse is located on the southern side of Ganjali Square, off a section of Vakil Bazaar known as Ganjali Bazaar. The entrance of the building are painted with ornaments of the Safavid era. An interesting feature of its architectural finish is that the sculptured stones of the ceiling coincide with that of the flooring. It is composed of a disrobing room, cold room and hot room, all covered with domes carried on squinches.
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Many German Imperial cathedrals feature domes at their crossings. Churches in northern Italy after 1100 were designed with vaulting from the outset, rather than as colonnaded basilicas with timber roofs and, like the Rhenish imperial cathedrals, many have octagonal domes with squinches over their crossings or choirs. Examples include Parma Cathedral, rebuilt around 1130, and Piacenza Cathedral (1122-1235). Another example is the domed church of San Fedele in Como (11th to 12th century), similar to the church of St. Maria im Kapitol.
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The church, built in the 12th-14th centuries in a transitional style between the Romanesque and the Gothic, has a Latin cross plan with a single nave including four aisles, and a transept. The latter is longer but narrower than the nave, to which it is connected by a rectangular shape surmounted by an octagonal dome, supported by 13th century squinches. The transept's arm end with square apse chapels. The nave is covered by cross vaults, while the transept has barrel vaults.
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The L-shaped madrasa has twelve domed cells and a large classroom, all fronted by an arcade whose shed roof is carried by nineteen columns. Cells are placed all in a row except at the northern end, where a single cell encloses the arcade before the seawall. The classroom, which is seven meters squared, occupies the centre of the western wing of and projects beyond the madrasa wall. It is surmounted by a dome carried on squinches and raised on an octagonal drum.
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Its "free-cross" design, with a horseshoe apse in a cross plan, stylistically dates to the early 7th century, with a bit of the 16th-century stonework—a single-nave funeral chapel—to the southwest. The dome rests on an octagonal base, supported by four large and eight smaller squinches and containing two windows, to the east and to the west. Three more window are found in the lower part of the building. The entrance to the church is from the south.
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The church of the Mother of God is built of porous tuff. It has the centrally located dome, which is without a drum, rests on squinches, and is vaulted with a gable roof, imparting an outward appearance of a single-nave building. At the east end of the interior there is a sanctuary, with a semicircular apse and side chambers. The west part of the interior is two-storeyed, each floor connected to the central square bay through a pair of arched openings.
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At the crossing of nave and transept is the octagonal dome, a 30 m-high asymmetrical structure supported on squinches, in the Lombard- Romanesque style. It is reportedly the earliest example of this form in Lombardy. The façade is decorated by numerous sandstone sculptures, of religious or profane themes; they are however now much deteriorated. The façade has five double and two single mullioned windows and a cross, which are a 19th-century reconstruction of what was thought be the original scheme.
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The church at Hayravank was built during the late 9th century. It is a quatrefoil cruciform central-plan structure with four semi-circular apses that intersect to create squinches for the octagonal drum and conical dome to stand above. A small chapel was added in the 10th century, accessed from the southeastern corner of the church. A single portal leads into the church from the gavit, it is believed that this entry was added between the 12th and 13th centuries.
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The Baptistery of Parma, one of the largest baptisteries, was begun in 1196 and has dome frescoes dating from 1260 onwards. The Old Cathedral of Brescia was likely built in the first quarter of the 12th century and has a dome over a meter thick, made of heavy stone at the bottom and lighter porous stone at the top. In Tarquinia, the oval stone dome on squinches over the church of San Giacomo (c. 1121-1140) may have been inspired by the dome of Pisa Cathedral.
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The Christian domed basilicas built in Sicily after the Norman Conquest also incorporate distinctly Islamic architectural elements. They include hemispherical domes positioned directly in front of apses, similar to the common positioning in mosques of domes directly in front of mihrabs, and the domes use four squinches for support, as do the domes of Islamic North Africa and Egypt. In other cases, domes exhibit Byzantine influences with tall drums, engaged columns, and blind arcades. Examples at Palermo include the Palatine Chapel (1132–1143), La Martorana (c.
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Its unknown creators harmoniously combined references to the prior regional traditions and deployed innovative structural elements, such as squinches, as well as new for the time features that are considered customary for the Islamic architecture worldwide. Samanid Mausoleum is sometimes referred to as a "Jewel Box" due to its compact size and elegant, mathematically calculated proportions and rhythmic patterns of its intricate, unprecedented baked brick decoration. The mausoleum of Pakistan's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah--Mazar-e-Quaid is modeled after the Samanid Mausoleum.
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It may have originally been used in the courtyard of the mashhad and/or for special occasions. The dome is fluted (ribbed) and pointed, with an octagonal drum or base. On the inside, the transition from the octagonal base of the dome to the rest of the square chamber is achieved through a series of superimposed niches acting as squinches and giving the vague impression of stalactite-like forms. These foreshadowed the more elaborate muqarnas pendentives that would increasingly be used in later Islamic architecture in Cairo.
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The chambers inside are also enlivened with varying degrees of decoration, with the topmost (sixth) chamber being especially notable for its ornamental ribbed dome ceiling (similar to the domes of the Great Mosque of Cordoba) with muqarnas squinches and geometric patterns. The minaret is topped by a spire or finial (jamur). The finial includes gilded copper balls, decreasing in size towards the top, a traditional style of Morocco. A popular legend about the orbs, of which there are variations, claims that they are made of pure gold.
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Maqam of al-'Ajami, in 2015 Walid Khalidi describes the village remains in 1992: "The site is dotted with rubble, Christ's-thorn, and a few palm and olive trees. The only remaining village landmark is the neglected shrine of Muhammad al-'Ajami, a low, square, stone structure topped by a formerly whitewashed dome. The land in the vicinity is cultivated by Israelis." Petersen examined the maqam (shrine) of Muhammad al-Ajami in 1991, and described it as a small square building with a shallow dome supported by squinches.
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The so-called first Romanesque style of churches in the early 11th century included examples in Spain with domes on squinches. The domes tend to be dark and sometimes included small windows at the base. The church of Church of Sant Vicenç in Cardena was built by 1040 and there is another example at Corbera. The Corbera church may not have been intended to have a dome when the foundations were laid and the crossing bay was narrowed to create a square by the insertion of additional arches on the north and south sides.
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In Auvergne, there are several Romanesque churches with domed crossings that use squinches, with the dome supported by "flying screen" walls at the crossing bay and hidden on the exterior beneath octagonal towers with buttressing "shoulders" on two sides. Examples include the and the , which has a rotunda over the domed crossing. The crossing dome at Obazine Abbey has pendentives, which became popular in France throughout the 12th century. By the middle of the 12th century, the use of drums with windows beneath the domes allowed in more light.
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Perhaps the masterpiece of the series, the Salamanca crossing tower has two stories of windows in its drum. Its outer stone fish-scale roof lined with gothic crockets is a separate corbelled layer with only eight lobes, which applies weight to the haunches of the sixteen-sided inner dome. A later related dome is that over the chapter house of the Old Cathedral of Plasencia. The dome of the in Segovia is an octagonal crossed-arch dome on squinches that may have been made with concrete around the middle of the 12th century.
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Subject to the layout of each church, the iconographic schema typically accords with the classic Byzantine tripartition, evident also in Byzantine mosaic decoration, the three zones comprising: (1) the dome and conch of the apse; (2) the pendentives, squinches and upper vaults; and (3) the lower, secondary vaults and walls. The first is reserved for depictions of the holiest persons, the Christ Pantokrator and the Virgin; the second for scenes from the Life of Christ and the festival cycle; and the third for the choir of intercessory saints.
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The entrance to San Baudelio de Berlanga is a single horseshoe-arched door on the north wall of the building, which leads directly into the nave of the church. Upon entering the hermitage, visitors are greeted by a large circular pillar that rises to the vaults of the apse. From the top of the pillar project eight ribbed arches, which are supported at the four corners and middle of the walls of the church. These arches are horseshoe forms with corner ribs supported by small Moorish inspired squinches.
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The synthesis of styles created by this introduction of new forms to the Hindu tradition of trabeate construction created a distinctive architecture. Domes in pre-Mughal India have a standard squat circular shape with a lotus design and bulbous finial at the top, derived from Hindu architecture. Because the Hindu architectural tradition did not include arches, flat corbels were used to transition from the corners of the room to the dome, rather than squinches. In contrast to Persian and Ottoman domes, the domes of Indian tombs tend to be more bulbous.
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The domed chamber is richly decorated with carved stucco and with zellij tile mosaic along its lower walls, and the dome has muqarnas squinches. The small rectangular room preceding it holds four tombs and contains only fragments of its original decoration. This room is also open to the outside of the mosque via an archway window or door. The tombs in this area unfortunately are carved with Qur'anic verses but some of them do not have any other identifying inscriptions, which has made it difficult to confirm the individuals buried here.
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The mausoleum chamber is under the northwestern dome (visible from the street), at the structure's northern corner, and contains the cenotaph of Hasan Sadaqa. It is 7.8 by 8.4 meters, meaning it is not quite square, and the dome above is slightly elliptic as a consequence. The squinches (the transition zones between the round dome and the square chamber) are composed of pendentives with muqarnas forms, with colored glass windows in between. The chamber's decoration otherwise consists of carved stucco bands containing Arabic inscriptions, on arabesque backgrounds, running along the walls.
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One of the largest Seljuq domes, built over the site of a Sassanian Fire Temple, was that of the Jameh Mosque of Qazvin with a span of 15.2 meters. The largest Seljuq domed chamber was the Tomb of Ahmed Sanjar, which had a large double shell, intersecting ribs over plain squinches, and an exterior elaborately decorated at the zone of transition with arches and stucco work. The tomb of Sultan Sanjar, who reigned from 1117 to 1157, was damaged in the sack of Merv in 1221 by Tolui Khan.
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Armenian church building was prolific in the late 6th and 7th centuries and, by the 7th century, the churches tend to be either central plans or combinations of central and longitudinal plans. Domes were supported by either squinches (which were used in the Sasanian Empire but rarely in the Byzantine) or pendentives like those of the Byzantine empire, and the combination of domed-cross plan with the hall-church plan could have been influenced by the architecture of Justinian. Domes and cross arms were added to the longitudinal cathedral of Dvin from 608 to 615 and a church in Tekor.
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Bulbous domes were used to cover large buildings in Syria after the eleventh century, following an architectural revival there, and the present shape of the Dome of the Rock's dome likely dates from this time. Christian domes in Romanesque church architecture, especially those of the Holy Roman Empire, are generally octagonal on squinches and hidden externally within crossing towers, beginning around 1050. An example is the church of San Michele Maggiore in Pavia, Italy. St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, with its five domes on pendentives modeled on the Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles, was built from 1063 to 1072.
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The earliest Fatimid mosque, Al- Azhar, was similar to the earlier Mosque of Ibn Tulun but introduced domed bays at both ends of the qibla wall, in addition to the dome in front of the mihrab, and this feature was later repeated among the mosques of North Africa. Later alterations to the mosque have changed its original form. The use of corner squinches to support domes was widespread in Islamic architecture by the 10th and 11th centuries. Egypt, along with north-eastern Iran, was one of two areas notable for early developments in Islamic mausoleums, beginning in the 10th century.
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In Italy, the frequency, quality, and scope of dome construction increased beginning in the 11th century (although not in the city of Rome) and they were used in baptisteries, princely chapels, cathedrals, bell towers, and pieve churches. Domes in Romanesque architecture were generally found within crossing towers at the intersection of a church's nave and transept, which concealed the domes externally. Called a tiburio, this tower-like structure often had a blind arcade near the roof. Romanesque domes were typically octagonal in plan and used corner squinches to translate a square bay into a suitable octagonal base.
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1125–1150 and derives its five-domed cruciform plan ultimately from the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. The S. Front domes had dressed stone only on the lowest levels prior to alterations by Paul Abadie in the 19th century. The lanterns on the domes at Souillac were likewise added by 19th century restoration. The 11th and 12th century Cathedral of Le Puy uses an unusual row of six octagonal domes on squinches over its nave, with the domes at the western end being at least a century later than those at the east end.
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Elaborate baked brick decoration is unique in its level of detail and rhythmic patterns and combines multi-cultural decorative motifs (Sogdian, Sassanian, Persian, Arabic, Antique). However, the building architects went beyond simply appropriating existing traditions in building structure and decoration; they introduced new features symbolic for the monumental dynastic architecture. In its structure, Mausoleum's unknown architects used squinches, containing four interior arches and an octagonal structure, that allowed to redistribute the weight of the circular dome over a square base, an alternative to pendentives. Overall, the building is constructed in a form of a small, slightly tapering cube, with each side approximately long.
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The Crusades, beginning in 1095, also appear to have influenced domed architecture in Western Europe, particularly in the areas around the Mediterranean Sea. The Knights Templar, headquartered at the site, built a series of centrally planned churches throughout Europe modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with the Dome of the Rock also an influence. In southwest France, there are over 250 domed Romanesque churches in the Périgord region alone. The use of pendentives to support domes in the Aquitaine region, rather than the squinches more typical of western medieval architecture, strongly implies a Byzantine influence.
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Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom, in Istanbul, Turkey Byzantine architecture evolved from Roman architecture. Eventually, a style emerged incorporating Near East influences and the Greek cross plan for church design. In addition, brick replaced stone, classical order was less strictly observed, mosaics replaced carved decoration, and complex domes were erected. One of the great breakthroughs in the history of Western architecture occurred when Justinian I's architects invented a complex system providing for a smooth transition from a square plan of the church to a circular dome (or domes) by means of squinches or pendentives.
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Other domed examples include Ptghnavank in Ptghni (c. 600), a church in T'alinn (662-85), the Cathedral of Mren (629-40), and the Mastara Church (9th and 10th centuries). An 11th century Armenian source names an Armenian architect, Trdat, as responsible for the rebuilding of the dome of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople after the 989 earthquake caused a partial collapse of the central dome. Although squinches were the more common supporting system used to support Armenian domes, pendentives are always used beneath the domes attributed to Trdat, which include the 10th century monasteries of Marmasen, Sanahin, and Halpat, as well as the patriarchal cathedral of Argina (c.
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This hemispherical dome was built without a drum and supported by a remarkably open structural system, with the weight of the dome distributed on eight piers, rather than four, and corbelling used to avoid concentrating weight on their corners. The use of squinches to transition from those eight supports to the base of the dome has led to speculation of a design origin in Arab, Sasanian, or Caucasian architecture, although with a Byzantine interpretation. Similar openness in design was used in the earlier Myrelaion church, as originally built, but the katholikon of Hosios Loukas is perhaps the most sophisticated design since the Hagia Sophia. The smaller monastic church at Daphni, c.
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The origin of the muqarnas can be traced back to the mid-tenth century in northeastern Iran and central North Africa, as well as the Mesopotamian region. The exact origins of muqarnas are unknown, but it is assumed to have originated in either of these regions and dispersed through trade and pilgrimage. Evidence from 10th-century architectural fragments found near Nishapur in Iran, and tripartite squinches located in the Arab-Ata Mausoleum in the village of Tim, near Samarkand in Uzbekistan, are some examples of early developmental forms of muqarnas. Qubba Imam al-Dawr in Iraq, completed in 1090, was the first concrete example of a muqarnas dome.
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The dome mosaic is similar to that of the Cappella Palatina, with Christ enthroned in the middle and four bowed, elongated angels. The Greek inscriptions, decorative patterns, and evangelists in the squinches are obviously executed by the same Greek masters who worked on the Cappella Palatina. The mosaic depicting Roger II of Sicily, dressed in Byzantine imperial robes and receiving the crown by Christ, was originally in the demolished narthex together with another panel, the Theotokos with Georgios of Antiochia, the founder of the church. In Cefalù (1148) only the high, French Gothic presbytery was covered with mosaics: the Pantokrator on the semidome of the apse and cherubim on the vault.
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Yale, 164; Harle, 424 (quoted); Blair & Bloom, 149 In general minarets were slow to be used in India, and are often detached from the main mosque where they exist.Harle, 429 The Tomb of Iltutmish was added by 1236; its dome, the squinches again corbelled, is now missing, and the intricate carving has been described as having an "angular harshness", from carvers working in an unfamiliar tradition.Yale, 164 (quoted); Harle, 425 Other elements were added to the complex over the next two centuries. Another very early mosque, begun in the 1190s, is the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra in Ajmer, Rajasthan, built for the same Delhi rulers, again with corbelled arches and domes.
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The central dome is supported on squinches. The domes on both flanks are borne on muqarnas pendentives. Carved panels of red sandstone and white marble and plaster, as well as glazed tiles embellish the walls of the mosque. The overall effect of the Mosque has been best described as: > epitomizes in itself all that is best in Architecture of the Lodis and > displays a freedom of imagination, a bold diversity of design, an > appreciation of contrasting light and shade and a sense of harmony in line > and colour, which combine to make it one of the most spirited and > picturesque buildings of its kind in the whole range of Islamic art.
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Pre-Islamic domes in Persia are commonly semi-elliptical, with pointed domes and those with conical outer shells being the majority of the domes in the Islamic periods. The area of north-eastern Iran was, along with Egypt, one of two areas notable for early developments in Islamic domed mausoleums, which appear in the tenth century. The Samanid Mausoleum in Transoxiana dates to no later than 943 and is the first to have squinches create a regular octagon as a base for the dome, which then became the standard practice. Cylindrical or polygonal plan tower tombs with conical roofs over domes also exist beginning in the 11th century.
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The mosaic decoration of a cross-in-square church may be divided into three zones defined by the architectural articulation of the interior: an upper zone, which embraces the cupolas, high vaults, and the conch of the apse; a middle zone, including the squinches, pendentives, and upper parts of the vaults; and the lowest zone, composed of the lower or secondary vaults and the lower parts of the walls. The tripartite division has cosmographic significance: the uppermost zone corresponds to heaven, the middle zone to paradise or the Holy Land, and the lower zone to the terrestrial world.Demus, Mosaic decoration, 16. The Baptism of Christ, at Daphni.
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A principal part of the royal complex, commissioned by King George III of Georgia (), is a four-tier brick edifice built onto a three-metre high stone plinth, with its spacious, cruciform central hall surmounted by a dome 14 m in diameter resting on squinches. The entire building is walled and fortified with massive pillars. Westerly located additional structures and a palace church are of a later period, dating to the 13th/14th century. The importance of the ruins of the Geguti palace is emphasized by its largely secular nature as most of the surviving monuments of medieval Georgian architecture are churches and monasteries.
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Although double domes had long been used in Persia, Iraq, and western Asia, Indian domes prior to this time domes had a single shell of stonework. Afterward, most of the large domes were built with two shells in order to preserve good proportions in both the interior and exterior. The Data durbar in Lahore, Pakistan, is the largest Sufi complex in South Asia. According to Anna Suvorova, author of Muslim Saints in South Asia: The Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries: > The domed cupola design of Data Durbar is typical of the pre-Mughal Muslim > architecture of South Asia: while erecting the cupolas topping a square > building, an intermediate form of squinches or arched transitional supports > was used.
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The muqarnas cells are very large and resemble small squinches themselves. It was finished by 1090 by the court of an Uqaylid vassal of the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad and, although there are no surviving examples from Baghdad at this time, the large number of muqarnas domes known to have existed there by the end of the Middle Ages suggests that it could have been the source of the type. In Islamic North Africa, there are several early muqarnas domes dating from the twelfth century. The earliest may be an Almoravid restoration between 1135 and 1140 of a series of stucco muqarnas domes over the axial nave of the mosque of the Qarawiyyin in Fez.
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The use of double drums and corner squinches was commonly used to make the transition from square rooms to round domes. Decorations in Mamluk buildings concentrated on the most conspicuous areas of buildings: minarets, portals, windows, on the outside, and mihrab, qiblah wall, and floor on the inside. Decorations at the time may be subdivided into structural decoration (found outside the buildings and incorporate the medium of construction itself such as ablaq walls, plain or zigzag moldings, fishscale motifs, joggled lintels or voussoirs, inscriptions, and muqarnas) and applied decoration (found inside the buildings and include the use of marble marquetry, stucco, and glass mosaic). Mosques evenly spread with major concentration of madrasas around the Mansouri Great Mosque.
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The ribbed arches, squinches or niches beneath the arches, and the method of construction in the lantern are all apparently derived from areas like Syria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia in the Near East. It is important to note though, that not all the oriental aesthetics that occur in Spanish churches were introduced by the Moors. Many had already been introduced to Spain during Visigothic times through its commercial and ecclesiastical connections with the Near East. The use of rectangular frames around arches and intersecting ribbed vaults at San Baudelio was originally inspired by the extension of the mosque of Cordoba by Al-Hakam II, and it can also be seen in the church at San Millan de La Cogolla.
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Beyond this there are steps to a third level and a large rectangular room with ¼ circle squinches at each corner supporting a domed roof. This was buttressed by very thick walls on all sides, presumably to ensure its stability, and the cupola could be reached by a spiral staircase on the south side. The fortified palace contains many of the recurring features of Sasanian palace and civic architecture: long halls, arches, domes, recessed windows, and stairways. The construction is uniform of roughly shaped stone and mortar, but the surfaces were obviously all finished with a thick coating of plaster or stucco, giving a smooth and elegant appearance, which could have been decorated with ornamentation or painting.
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This magnificent structure fascinated architects in the centuries that followed and has been considered one of the most important examples of Persian architecture. Many of the palaces contain an inner audience hall consisting, as at Firuzabad, of a chamber surmounted by a dome. The Persians solved the problem of constructing a circular dome on a square building by employing squinches, or arches built across each corner of the square, thereby converting it into an octagon on which it is simple to place the dome. The dome chamber in the palace of Firuzabad is the earliest surviving example of the use of the squinch, suggesting that this architectural technique was probably invented in Persia.
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As reconstructed by Theodulf in 806, the oratory took the form of a rough square with single apses in the middle of the north, south, and west sides, and three apses on the east side. Internally, the space took the form of a Greek cross: a high central tower filled the central bay, barrel vaults extended off in the north, south, east, and west bays, while in the corner bays there were low domes carried on squinches. This plan type was later to become standard in Byzantine architecture. Horseshoe arches are used throughout the church, an unusual element in French architecture derived, in this case, from the Visigothic practices of Theodulf's native Spain.
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In addition to religious shrines, domes were used over the audience and throne halls of Umayyad palaces, and as part of porches, pavilions, fountains, towers and the calderia of baths. Blending the architectural features of both the Byzantine and Persian architecture, the domes used both pendentives and squinches and were made in a variety of shapes and materials. A dome stood at the center of the palace-city of Baghdad and, similarly but on a smaller scale, there are literary accounts of a domed audience hall in the palace of Abu Muslim in Merv at the meeting point of four iwans arranged along the cardinal directions. Muslim palaces included domical halls as early as the eighth century, well before domes became standard elements of mosque architecture.
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Gol Gumbaz (Kannada: ಗೋಲ ಗುಮ್ಮಟ) (Urdu: گول گمبد) is the mausoleum of Mohammed Adil Shah (1627–55) of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Indian sultans, who ruled the Sultanate of Bijapur from 1490 to 1686. The tomb, located in the city of Bijapur, or Vijapur in Karnataka, southern India, was built in 1659 by the famous architect, Yaqut of Dabul. The structure consists of a massive square chamber measuring nearly 50 m (160 ft) on each side and covered by a huge dome 43.3 m (142 ft) in diameter making it one of the largest dome structures in world. The dome is supported on giant squinches supported by groined pendentives while outside the building is supported by domed octagonal corner towers.
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Great Mosque of Córdoba. Much of the Muslim architecture of Al-Andalus was lost as mosques were replaced by churches after the twelfth century, but the use of domes in surviving Mozarabic churches from the tenth century, such as the paneled dome at Santo Tomás de las Ollas and the lobed domes at the Monastery of San Miguel de Escalada, likely reflects their use in contemporary mosque architecture. The Great Mosque of Córdoba, begun in 785 under the last of the Umayyad caliphs, was enlarged by Al-Hakam II between 961 and 976 to include four domes and a remodeled mihrab. The central dome, in front of the mihrab area, transitions from a square bay with decorative squinches to eight overlapping and intersecting arches that surround and support a scalloped dome.
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Squinches were used at the corners to create an elongated octagon in a system similar to that of the contemporary Basilica of San Lorenzo in Milan and corbelling was used to create an oval base for the dome. The tambour on which the dome rests dates to between 1090 and 1100, and it is likely that the dome itself was built at that time. There is evidence that the builders did not originally plan for the dome and decided on the novel shape to accommodate the rectangular crossing bay, which would have made an octagonal cloister vault very difficult. Additionally, the dome may have originally been covered by an octagonal lantern tower that was removed in the 1300s, exposing the dome, to reduce weight on foundations not designed to support it.
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It is the only surviving monument from the Samanid era, but Arthur Upham Pope called it the "one of the finest in Persia". Perfectly symmetrical, compact in its size, yet monumental in its structure, the mausoleum not only combined multi-cultural building and decorative traditions, such as Sogdian, Sassanian, Persian and even classical and Byzantine architecture, but incorporated features customary for Islamic architecture – a circular dome and mini domes, pointed arches, elaborate portals, columns and intricate geometric designs in the brickwork. At each corner, the mausoleum's builders employed squinches, an architectural solution to the problem of supporting the circular-plan dome on a square. The building was buried in silt some centuries after its construction and was revealed during the 20th century by archaeological excavation conducted under the USSR.
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The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem The Syria and Palestine area has a long tradition of domical architecture, including wooden domes in shapes described as "conoid", or similar to pine cones. When the Arab Muslim forces conquered the region, they employed local craftsmen for their buildings and, by the end of the 7th century, the dome had begun to become an architectural symbol of Islam. In addition to religious shrines, such as the Dome of the Rock, domes were used over the audience and throne halls of Umayyad palaces, and as part of porches, pavilions, fountains, towers and the calderia of baths. Blending the architectural features of both Byzantine and Persian architecture, the domes used both pendentives and squinches and were made in a variety of shapes and materials.
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A dome (from Latin: domus) is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere; there is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a matter of controversy and there are a wide variety of forms and specialized terms to describe them. A dome can rest directly upon a rotunda wall, a drum, or a system of squinches or pendentives used to accommodate the transition in shape from a rectangular or square space to the round or polygonal base of the dome. A dome's apex may be closed or may be open in the form of an oculus, which may itself be covered with a roof lantern and cupola.
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The use of domes declined in Western Europe with the rise of Gothic architecture. Gothic domes are uncommon due to the use of rib vaults over naves, and with church crossings usually focused instead by a tall steeple, but there are examples of small octagonal crossing domes in cathedrals as the style developed from the Romanesque. Spaces of circular or octagonal plan were sometimes covered with vaults of a "double chevet" style, similar to the chevet apse vaulting in Gothic cathedrals. The crossing of is an example. The 13th century ribbed dome on squinches at the crossing of the in Ávila, Spain is another. The domed "Decagon" nave of St. Gereon's Basilica in Cologne, Germany, a ten-sided space in an oval shape, was built between 1219 and 1227 upon the remaining low walls of a 4th-century Roman mausoleum. The ribbed domical vault rises four stories and 34 meters above the floor, covering an oval area 23.5 meters long and 18.7 meters wide. It is unique among the twelve Romanesque churches of Cologne, and in European architecture in general, and may have been the largest dome built in this period in Western Europe until the completion of the dome of Florence Cathedral.
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