Temple Flashcards
An edifice or place dedicated to the worship or presence of a deity.
Temple
Of or pertaining to religious objects, rites, or practices as opposed to the secular or profane.
Sacred
Of or pertaining to the temporal or worldly rather than the sacred or spiritual.
Profane, Secular
A temple-tower in Sumerian and Assyrian architecture, built in diminishing stages of mud brick with buttressed walls faced with burnt brick, culminating in a summit shrine or temple reached by a series of ramps; though to be of Sumerian origin, dating from the end of the 3rd millennium BCE.
Ziggurat, Zikkurat
A temple-tower presume to be the great ziggurat at Babylon, which no longer survives, though it was seen and described by the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century BCE.
And they said to one another, Let us make brick, and burn it thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. And they said, Let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven and let us make a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon face of the whole earth” Genesis 11:4
Tower of Babel
The monumental stone sculptures of human-headed, winged bulls or lions that guarded the entrances to Mesopotamian palaces and temples.
Lamassu
A prehistoric monument consisting of an upright megalith, usually standing alone but sometimes aligned with others.
Menhir
A very large stone used as found or roughly dressed, esp in ancient construction work.
Megalith
A single block of stone of considerable size, often in the form of an obelisk or column.
Monolith
A heap of stones piled up as a monument, tombstone, or landmark.
Cairn, Carn
A prehistoric monument consisting of two or more large upright stones supporting a horizontal stone slab, found esp. in Britain and France and usually regarded as Tomb.
Dolmen
A megalithic tomb of the Neolithic and early Bronze Ages found in the British Isles and Europe, consisting of a roofed burial chamber and narrow entrance passage, covered by a tumulus; believed to have been used for successive family or clan burials spanning a number of generations.
Chamber Grave, Passage Grave
An artificial mound of earth or stone, esp over an ancient grave.
Tumulus, Barrow
Two upright megaliths supporting a horizontal stone.
Trilithon, Trilith
A circular arrangement of megaliths enclosing a dolmen or burial mound.
Cromlech
A circular arrangement of vertically oriented wooden posts or stones.
Henge
A megalithic monument erected in the early Bronze Age, c. 2700 BCE, on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, consisting of four concentric rings of trilithons and menhirs centered around an altar stone: believed to have been used by a sun cult or for astronomical observations.
Stonehenge
A long, deep passageway into an ancient subterranean tomb.
Dromos
A stone-built subterranean tomb of the Mycenaean civilization consisting of a circular chamber covered by a corbeled dome and centered by a walled passage through a hillside.
Beehive Tomb, Tholos
A tome of the Aegean civilizations consisting of a deep rectangular cut into sloping rock and a roof of timber or stone.
Shaft Grave
An ancient Egyptian tomb made of mud brick, rectangular in plan with a flat roof and sloping sides, from which a shaft leads to underground.
Mastaba
A small chamber inside a mastaba containing a statue of the deceased.
Serdab
The figure of the sacred asp, depicted on the headdress of ancient Egyptian rulers and deities as an emblem of supreme power.
Uraeus
A massive masonry structure having a rectangular base and four smooth, steeply sloping sides facing the cardinal points and meeting at an apex, used in ancient Egypt as a tomb to contain the burial chamber and the mummy of the pharaoh. The pyramid was usually part of a complex of buildings within a walled enclosure, including mastabas for members of the royal family, an offering chapel and a mortuary temple. A raised causeway led from the enclosure down to a valley temple on the Nile, where purification rites and mummification were performed.
Pyramid
A narrow rock-cut corridor in an ancient Egypt tomb.
Syrinx
A historic burial ground, esp a large elaborate one of an ancient city.
Necropolis
A raised passageway ceremonially connecting the valley temple with an ancient Egyptian pyramid.
Causeway
Any of the rulers of ancient Egypt who were believed to be divine and had absolute power.
Pharaoh
A concave molding having an outline that approximates a quarter circle.
Cavetto
A characteristic cornice of Egyptian buildings, consisting of a large cavetto decorated with vertical leaves and a roll molding below.
Cavetto Cornice, Egyptian Gorge
A figure of an imaginary creature having the body of a lion and the head of a man, ram, or hawk, commonly placed along avenues leading to ancient Egyptian temples or tombs.
Sphinx
A tomb hewn out of native rock, presenting only an architectural front with dark interior chambers, of which the sections are supported by masses of stone left in the form of solid pillars.
Rock-cut tomb
A tall, four-sided shaft of stone that tapers as it rises to a pyramidan point, originating in ancient Egypt as a sacred symbol of the sun-god Ra and usually standing in pairs astride temple entrances.
Obelisk
A monumental gateway to an ancient Egyptian temple, consisting either of a pair of tall truncated pyramids and a doorway between them or of one such masonry mass pierced with a doorway, often decorated with painted reliefs.
Pylon
A large hall having many columns in rows supporting a flat roof, and sometimes a clerestory; prevalent in ancient Egyptian and Achaemenid architecture.
Hypostyle Hall
An ancient Egyptiam temple for the worship of a deity, as distinguished from a mortuary temple.
Cult Temple
An ancient Egyptiam temple for offerings and worship of a deceased person, usually a deified king. In the New Kingdom, cult and funerary temples had many features in common: an avenue of sphinxes leading to a tall portal guarded by a towering pylon, an axial plan with a colonnaded forecourt, and a hypostyle hall set before a dark, narrow sanctuary in which stood a statue of the deity, and walls lavishly decorated with pictographic carvings in low or sunken relief. Many of the major temples grew by accretion due to the pious ambitions of successive pharaohs, who believed in the afterlife and were determined to create an enduring reputation through their buildings.
Mortuary Temple
The period in the history of ancient Egypt, c. 1550 - 1200 BCE, comprising the 18th to 20th dynasties, characterized by the dominance of its capital at Thebes.
New kingdom
An ancient Egyptian column incorporating the sculptured figure of Osiris, the Egyptian god of death and resurrection.
Osirian Column
Noting an ancient Egyptian column having as its capital the head of Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of love and happiness, often represented with the head or horns of a cow.
Hathor-headed, Hathoric
An ancient Egyptian capital shaped like of the crown of a palm tree.,
Palm capital
An ancient Egyptian capital having the shape of a lotus bud.
Lotus capital
A building or semi-independent unit of a building, typically having a rectangular principal chamber with a center hearth and a porch, often with columns in antis; traditional in Greece since Mycenaean times and believed to be the ancestor of the Doric temple.
Megaron
A temple built as a shrine to the ancient Greek god or goddess to whom it was dedicated. Since the temple was not intended for internal worship, it was built with special regard for external effect. It stood on a stylobate of three or more steps, with a cella containing the statue of the deity and front and rear porticoes, the whole being surmounted by a low gable roof of timber, covered in terra-cotta or marble tiles.
Greek Temple
Temple of Concordia, Agrigento
The fortified high area or citadel of an ancient Greek City.
Acropolis
A vestibule or gateway of architectural importance before a temple area or other enclosure, such as the entrance structure to the Acropolis in Athens.
Propylaeum
A marketplace or public square in an ancient Greek city, usually surrounded with public buildings and porticoes and commonly used as a place for popular or political assembly.
Agora
An ancient Greek portico, usually detached and of considerable length, used as a promenade or meeting place around public places.
Stoa
In ancient Greece, a piece of ground specially reserved and enclosed as a sacred place.
Temenos
The rear vestibule of a classical temple.
Epinaos, Opisthodomos, posticum
An elevated place or structure upon which sacrifices are offered or incense burned in worship, or before which religious rites are performed.
Altar
The principal chamber or enclosed part of a classical temple,. where the cult image was kept.
Cella, Naos
The innermost chamber within the cella of a Greek or Roman temple, reserved for priests and oracles.
Adyton
An open vestibule before the cella of a classical temple.
Pronaos, Anticum
An upright stone slab or pillar with a carved or inscribed surface, used as a monument or marker, or as a commemorative tablet in the face of a bulding.
Stele, Stela
A wide, low-pitched gable surmounting a colonnade or a major division of a facade.
Pediment
The triangular space enclosed by the horizontal and raking cornices of a pediment, often recessed and decorated with sculpture.
Tympanum
A course of masonry forming the foundation for a row of columns, esp the outermost colonnade of a classical temple.
Stylobate
A solid mass of masonry visible above ground level and serving as the foundation of a building, esp the platform forming the floor and substructure of a classical temple.
Stereobate, Crepidoma, Podium
An upright ornament at the eaves of a tile roof concealing the foot of a row of convex tiles that cover the joints of the flat tiles.
Antefix
A sculptured figure of a man used as a column.
Atlas, telamon
A sculptured female figure used as a column.
Caryatid, Canephora
The portable sanctuary in which the Hebrews carried the ark of the covenant through the desert until the building of the Temple of Jerusalem by Solomon.
Tabernacle
The innermost chamber in the biblical Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem where the ark of the covenant was kept.
Holy of Holies, Sanctum Sanctorum
The chest containing two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, carried by the Hebrews during their desert wanderings after the Exodus.
Ark of the covenant.
The first Temple of Jerusalem, complete c. 950 BCE by Phoenician artisans under the direction of King Solomon and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. Based on Canaanite and Phoenician prototypes, it was oblong in shape, and consisted of three main parts: an outer hall (ulam), the main sanctuary (hekhal), and the holy of holies (debir), all decorated with massive carvings in ivory, gold, and cedar.
Temple of Solomon
A building or place of assembly for Jewish worship and religious instruction.
Synagogue
The platform in a synagogue from which services are conducted.
Bimah, Almemar, bema
The cabinet in a synagogue in which the scrolls of the Torah are kept, set into or against the wall that faces toward Jerusalem.
Holy Ark
A large oblong building used as a hall of justice and public meeting place in ancient Rome, typically having a high central space lit by a clerestory and covered by timber trusses, and raised dais in a semicircular apse for the tribunal. The Roman basilica served as a model for early Christian basilicas.
Basilica
A raised platform in an ancient Roman basilica for the seats of magistrates.
Tribunal, Tribune
the Tribunal in the Basilica, Pompeii, Italy
The public square or marketplace of an ancient Roman city, the center of judicial and business affairs, and a place of assembly for the people, usually including a basilica and a temple.
Forum
Roman forum during ancient times
A temple dedicated to all the gods of a people.
Pantheon
Pantheon, Rome
A convex, usually semicircular portico.
Cyrtostyle
portico and dome of rotunda
A circular colonnade or perstyle open at the center.
Cyclostyle
A circular building having a single row of column surrounding a central structure or a courtyard.
Monopteron
Having two columns in front between antae.
Distyle in antis
A rectangular pier or pilaster formed by thickening the end of projecting wall.
Anta
Having a portico on the front only.
Prostyle
Without a colonnade along the sides.
Apteral
Prostyle on both fronts.
Amphiprostyle
Having a single row of column on all sides.
Peripteral
A colonnade parallel to, but apart from the cella.
Pteron
The passage between the pteron and the cella.
Pteroma
A monumental memorial arch erected astride the line of march of a victorius army during its triumphal procession.
Triumphal Arch
Arc de Triomphe
Having a colonnade at one or each end, with engaged columns at the sides.
Pseudoperipteral
having two rows of columns on all sides.
Dipteral
Having an arrangement of columns suggesting a dipteral structure but without the inner colonnade.
Pseudodipteral
A Muslim building or palce of public worship.
Mosque, Masjid, Musjid
Sultan Ahmed Mosque
A muslim theological school arranged around a courtyard and attached to a mosque, found from the 11th century on in Egypt, Anatolia, and Persia.
Madrasah
Kukeldash Madrasa, Tashkent -
The large open square of a city, used as a marketplace or parade ground, esp in India.
Maidan, meidan, meydan
A court or series of courts serving to shelter a mosque from immediate contact with secular buildings.
ziyada
A pulpit in a mosque, recalling the three steps from which Muhammed addressed his followers and from which the imam delivers his sermons.
Minbar, mimbar
The wall in a mosque in which the mihrab is set, oriented to Mecca.
qibla, qiblah, kibla, kiblah
A niche or decorative panel in a mosque designating the qibla.
Mihrab
Mihrab in the Mezquita of Córdoba, Spain
A city in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Muhammad and spiritual center of Islam.
Mecca
A small, cubical stone building in the courtyard of the Great Mosque at Mecca containing a sacred black stone and regarded by Muslims as the House of God, the objective of their pilgrimages, and the point toward which they turn in praying.
Ka’ba, Ka’aba, Ka’abah
An inn in the Near East for the overnight accommodation of caravans, usually having a large courtyard enclosed by a solid wall and entered through an imposing gateway.
Caravansary, Caravanserai
Caravansary (2), Miandasht Caravansary, Miandasht, Iran
A masonry mass having a rectanuglar base and four stepped and sloping faces culminating in a single apex, used in ancient Egypt and pre-Columbian Central America as a tomb or a platform for a temple.
Pyramid
A lofty, slender tower attached to a mosque, having stairs leading up to one or more projecting balconies from which the muezzin calls the Muslim people to prayer.
Minaret
A large vaulted portal opening onto the central courtyard of a mosque.
Iwan, Ivan, Liwan
The central courtyard of a mosque.
Sahn
Large sahn of the Mosque of Uqba, surrounded by riwaq (arcades), in Tunisia
An arcaded hall of a mosque.
Riwaq
Riwaq at the Mosque of Muhammad Ali in Cairo
A bulbous ribbed dome, found esp in Islamic archtiecture.
Melon dome
Mosque-Thomb Abu Nasr Parsa, Balkh [3] 6. MELON-RIBBED
A system of decoration in Islamic archtiecture, formed by the intricate corbeling of brackets, squinches and inverted pyramids, sometimes wrought in stone but more often in plaster.
Stalactite work, honeycomb work, muqarnas
Corbeling having the general form of a pendentive, commonly found in Moorish architecture.
Pendentive bracketing
An openwork screen or partition enclosing an area for prayer or a tomb in a mosque.
Maksoorah
A rectangular, strongly framed panel that overhangs a talud. An orginal contribution of Teotihuacan architecture, this tablero-talud combination was introduced c 150 CE to differentiate the stages of stepped pyramids and altar platforms. It is widely copied throughout Mesoamerica, with regional variations.
Tablero
In Mesoamerican architecture, an outer wall that slopes inward as it rises. The talud first appeared c.800 BCE at the Olmec site of La Venta, in Tabasco state, Mexico.
Talud
The officially recognized gods of a people.
Pantheon
A phallus, the symbol of the god Shiva in Hindu architecture.
Lingam, Linga
Womb chamber: the dark, innermost sanctuary of a Hindu temple where the statue of the deity is placed.
Garbha Griha
The oldest sacred writings of Hinduism, composed between 1500 and 800 BCE, incorporating four collections of hymns, prayers, and liturgical formulas: Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-veda, and Atharva-Veda.
Vedas
A freestanding memorial pillar in Indian architecture, bearing carved inscriptions, religious emblems, or a statue.
Stamba, Stambha
Vijaya Stambha
A hindu temple.
Mandira
GAJENDRA PEETH. Gajendra Peeth.
A Hindu temple cut out of solid rock to resemble a chariot.
Rath, Ratha
The sanctuary of a Hindu temple in which a deity is enshrined.
Vimana
The main shrine, or Vimana, of the 11th century Brihadeeswarar temple at Gangaikondacholapuram in Tamil Nadu, India
The bulbous stone finial of a sikhara.
Amalaka
A tower of a Hindu temple, usually tapered convexly and capped by an amalaka.
Sikhara, Sikra
A large, porchlike hall leading to a Hindu temple and used for religious dancing and music.
Mandapa
A monumental, usually ornate gateway tower to a Hindu temple enclosure, esp in southern India.
Gopuram, Gopura
A Hindu or Buddhist diagram of the cosmos, characterized by a concentric configuration of geometric shapes and often used to guide the design of Indian temple plans.
Mandala
A broad flight of steps descending to a river in India, especially a river used as a sacred bathing site.
Ghat, Ghaut
A Buddhist monastery in Indian architecture often excavated from solid rock, consisting of a central pillared chamber surrounded by a verandah onto which open small sleeping cells. Adjacent to this cloister was a courtyard containing the main stupa.
Vihara
A Buddhist shrine in India, usually carved out of solid rock on a hillside, having the form of an aisled basilica with a stupa at one end.
Chaitya
A Buddhist monastery or temple in Thailand or Cambodia.
Wat
Angkor Wat - The largest Hindu temple in Cambodia and the world
A Tibetan Buddhist monastery or nunnery laid out in the form of a mandala, with a central prayer hall lined with benches and attached living accommodations for monks or nuns.
Gompa
Thiksey Gompa or Thiksay Monastery is a gompa (monastery) affiliated with the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It is the largest gompa in central Ladakh.
A finial in the form of a conventionalized umbrella, used on stupas, topes, and pagodas.
Tee
An umbrella-shaped finial symbolizing dignity, composed of a stone disk on a vertical pole.
Chattri
An elaborately carved, ceremonial gateway in Indian Buddhist and Hindu architecture, having two or three lintels between two posts.
Torana
A railing enclosing sacred area, as that of a stupa.
Vedika
A Buddhist memorial mound erected to enshrine a relic of Buddha and to commemorate some event or mark a sacred spot. Modeled on a funerary tumulus, it consists of an artificial dome-shaped mound raised on a platform, surrounded by an outer ambulatory with a stone vedika and four toranas, and crowned by a chattri.
Stupa, Tope
The name for the stupa in Ceylon is dagoba, and in Tibet and Nepal, Chorten.
Ruwanweliseya, or the “Great Stupa”, is regarded as the most important of the stupas at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. Standing at 300 feet,
The doctrines of Buddha: all life is suffering; the cause of suffering is desire, cessation of suffering is possible through Nirvana - the extenction of craving; Nirvana can be reached through mental and moral self-purification.
Four Noble Truths
The spirit way that led from the south gate to a royal tomb of the Tang dynasty, lined with stone pillars and sculptured animan and human figures.
Lingdao
A large Buddhist monastic center in northwest China, begun in 460 CE, where there are numerous cave temples, each having a shallow, oval-shaped interior with a massive central image of Buddha flanked by two smaller Buddhas: the concept of carving into cliffs is believed to have coem to China from India.
Yungang, Yun-kang
A Buddhist temple in the form of a square or polygonal tower with roofs projecting from each of its many stories, erected as a memorial or to hold relics. From the stupa, the Indian prototype, the pagoda gradually changed in form to resemble the traditional multistoried watchtower as it spread with Buddhism to China and Japan. Pagodas were initially of timber; but from the 6th century on, were more frequently of brick or stone, possible due to Indian influence.
Pagoda
Wooden five-story pagoda of Hōryū-ji in Japan, built in the 7th century, one of the oldest wooden buildings in the world.
A monumental gateway in Chinese architecture, having a trabeated form of stone or wood construction with one, three, or five openings and often bold projecting roofs, erected as a memorial at the entrance to a palace, tomb, or sacred place; related to the Indian toranas and the Japanese torii,.
Pailou, Pailoo
Huairen Pailou
A bell tower or pavilion in Chinese archtiecture, located at the right side of a city gate, palace entrance, or forecourt of a temple.
Zhonglou
A large drum tower or pavilion in Chinese architecture, located at the left side of a city gate, palace entrance, or forecourt of a temple.
Gulou
A screen wall in Chinese architecture that protects the main gate to a monastery or house against evil spirits, which were believed to move only in a straight line.
Yingbi
Wang Shanxi Courtyard YingBi
A bracket system used in traditional Chinese construction to support roof beams, project the eaves outward, and support the interior ceiling. The absence of a triangular tied frame in Chinese architecture made it necessary to multiply the number of supports under the rafters. In order to reduce the number of pillars this would normally require, the area of support afforded by each pillar was increased by the dougong. The main beams support the roof through intermediary queen posts and shorter upper beams, enabling the roof to be given a concave curve. This distinctive curve is believed to have developed at the beginning of the Tang period, presumably to lighten the visual weight of the roof and allow more daylight into the interior.
Dougong, Tou-kung
A lever arm in traditional Chinese construction, placed parallel to the rafters and raked at an angle to counterbalance the forces applied by the inner and outer purlins. The ang supports the outermost purlin by means of a bracket or cross-beam and is pinned at the inner end against a purlin.
Ang
A compendium of Chinese architectural tradition and building methods, compiled by Li Jie and printed in 1103 CE. It has thirty-four chapters devoted to technical terms, construction methods, measurements and proportions of archtiectural elements, labor management, building materials, and decoration.
Yingzao Fashi
A cantilevered bracket in traditional Chinese construction.
Gong, kung
A bearing block in traditional Chinese construction.
Dou, Tou
A style of Shingot shrine embodying the original style of Japanese building, before the introdction of Bhudhism. It consists essentially of a small unpainted rectangular structure raised above ground level on posts inserted directly into the earth. A railed veranda surrounds the structure at floor level, a fresstanding post at each gable end supports the ridge, and the bargeboards extend outward form the thickly thatced roof, forming chigi at each end.
Shimmei-Zukuri
The short wooden billets placed at right angles to the ridge of a Shinto shrine.
Katsuogi
The crossed finial formed by the projecting barge boards at each end of the ridge of a Shinto shrine.
chigi
Originally, a sacred post in Shinto architecture, shaped by human hands. Later, a column, or pillar serving as the basic vertical member of a traditional Japanese wooden structure.
Hashira
A style of Shinto shrine, based on the Ise prototype, but with the front slope of the roof extending to form a canopy over the entrance stair; this space eventually developed into a prayer room for worshippers.
Nagare-Zukuri
A style of Shinto shrine, characterized by a hipped roof extending from the main roof, over a centrally placed entrance stair at one gable end.
Kasuga-zukuri
The hall of worship of a Shinto Shrine, usually in front of the honden.
Haiden
Tha main sanctuary of a Shinto shrine.
Honden
An approach through two gateways that are not aligned, so that it is necessary to make a sharp turn to pass from the first through the second, used for privacy in houses or temples, or for security in fortifications.
Bent Approach
The covered gallery surrounding a precinct of a Japanese temple or shrine.
Kairo
An assembly hall for monks in a japanese buddhist temple, in which sacred texts are read.
kodo
A japanese pagoda enshrining Buddhist holy relics.
To
The crowning spire on a Japanese pagoda.
Sorin
Golden Hall: the sanctuary where the main image of worship is kept in a Japanese Buddhist temple. The Jodo, Shinshu, and Nicheiren sects of Buddhism use the term hondo for this sanctuary, the Shingon and Tendai sects use chudo, and the Zen sect uses butsuden.
Kondo
The principal south-gateway to a Japanese temple or shrine.
Nandaimon
THe inner gateway to the precinct of a Japanese Buddhist temple.
Chumon
A structure from which the temple bell is hung, as one of a pair of small, identical, symmetrically placed pavilions in a Japanese Buddhist temple.
Shoro
One of a pair of small, identical, symmetrically placed pavilions in a Japanese Buddhist temple.
Kyozo
A terra-cotta statue moade for ritual use and buried with the dead as a funerary object during the Kofun period of Japan.
Haniwa
A representation of Buddha.
Butsu
A large representation of Buddha.
Daibutsu
Kamakura Budda Daibutsu front 1885
A monumental, freestanding gateway on the approach to a Shinto shrine, consisting of two pillars connected at the top by a horizontal crosspiece and a lintel above it, usually curving upward.
Torii
