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.
128-605: Bara Gumbad ( lit. ' big dome ' ) is a medieval monument located in Lodhi Gardens in Delhi , India. It is part of a group of monuments that include a Friday mosque (Jama Masjid) and the " mehman khana " (guest house) of Sikandar Lodhi , the ruler of the Delhi Sultanate . The Bara Gumbad was constructed in 1490 CE, during the reign of the Lodhi dynasty . Its construction
256-711: A ṣawma῾a ("monk's cell", due to its small size). An example of these platforms is documented during the reconstruction of the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in 673 by Mu'awiya 's local governor, Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari , who was given orders by the caliph to add one to each of the mosque's four corners, similar to the Great Mosque of Damascus which had a ṣawma῾a above each of the Roman-era towers at its four corners. Historical sources also mention such features in mosques in other parts of North Africa . In another example, under
384-400: A " whispering gallery " at its base that at certain places transmits distinct sound to other distant places in the gallery. The half-domes over the apses of Byzantine churches helped to project the chants of the clergy. Although this can complement music, it may make speech less intelligible, leading Francesco Giorgi in 1535 to recommend vaulted ceilings for the choir areas of a church, but
512-480: A central point. The validity of this is unclear, as domes built underground with corbelled stone layers are in compression from the surrounding earth. The precise definition of "pendentive" has also been a source of academic contention, such as whether or not corbelling is permitted under the definition and whether or not the lower portions of a sail vault should be considered pendentives. Domes with pendentives can be divided into two kinds: simple and compound . In
640-713: A circle . Because they reduce the portion of the dome in tension, these domes are strong but have increased radial thrust. Many of the largest existing domes are of this shape. Masonry saucer domes, because they exist entirely in compression, can be built much thinner than other dome shapes without becoming unstable. The trade-off between the proportionately increased horizontal thrust at their abutments and their decreased weight and quantity of materials may make them more economical, but they are more vulnerable to damage from movement in their supports. Also called gadrooned , fluted , organ-piped , pumpkin , melon , ribbed , parachute , scalloped , or lobed domes, these are
768-554: A circular base alone, circular or polygonal base, circular, elliptical, or polygonal base, or an undefined area. Definitions specifying vertical sections include: semicircular, pointed, or bulbous; semicircular, segmental or pointed; semicircular, segmental, pointed, or bulbous; semicircular, segmental, elliptical, or bulbous; and high profile, hemispherical, or flattened. Sometimes called "false" domes, corbel domes achieve their shape by extending each horizontal layer of stones inward slightly farther than
896-516: A circular base for a drum or compound dome, smoothly continue their curvature to form the dome itself. The dome gives the impression of a square sail pinned down at each corner and billowing upward. These can also be thought of as saucer domes upon pendentives. Sail domes are based upon the shape of a hemisphere and are not to be confused with elliptic parabolic vaults, which appear similar but have different characteristics. In addition to semicircular sail vaults there are variations in geometry such as
1024-495: A city." The French word dosme came to acquire the meaning of a cupola vault, specifically, by 1660. This French definition gradually became the standard usage of the English dome in the eighteenth century as many of the most impressive Houses of God were built with monumental domes, and in response to the scientific need for more technical terms. Across the ancient world, curved-roof structures that would today be called domes had
1152-413: A different design than the others. This configuration was particularly characteristic of Cairo . The minaret of the al-Maridani Mosque (circa 1340) is the first one to have an entirely octagonal shaft and the first one to end with a narrow lantern structure consisting of eight slender columns topped by a bulbous stone finial . This style later became the basic standard form of Cairene minarets, while
1280-429: A dome. The top of a dome is the "crown". The inner side of a dome is called the "intrados" and the outer side is called the "extrados". As with arches, the "springing" of a dome is the base level from which the dome rises and the "haunch" is the part that lies roughly halfway between the base and the top. Domes can be supported by an elliptical or circular wall called a "drum". If this structure extends to ground level,
1408-546: A flat ceiling filled with as many coffers as possible for where preaching would occur. Cavities in the form of jars built into the inner surface of a dome may serve to compensate for this interference by diffusing sound in all directions, eliminating echoes while creating a "divine effect in the atmosphere of worship." This technique was written about by Vitruvius in his Ten Books on Architecture , which describes bronze and earthenware resonators. The material, shape, contents, and placement of these cavity resonators determine
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#17328522847691536-402: A hemispherical dome can be 2.5 times thinner than a semicircular arch, and a dome with the profile of an equilateral arch can be thinner still. The optimal shape for a masonry dome of equal thickness provides for perfect compression, with none of the tension or bending forces against which masonry is weak. For a particular material, the optimal dome geometry is called the funicular surface ,
1664-509: A limited number of simple elements and joints and efficiently resolve a dome's internal forces. Their efficiency is said to increase with size. Although not first invented by Buckminster Fuller , they are associated with him because he designed many geodesic domes and patented them in the United States. The hemispherical dome is a surface formed by the rotation around a vertical axis of a semicircle . Like other "rotational domes" formed by
1792-513: A low rise to span ratio or covering a rectangular plan. Sail vaults of all types have a variety of thrust conditions along their borders, which can cause problems, but have been widely used from at least the sixteenth century. The second floor of the Llotja de la Seda is covered by a series of nine meter wide sail vaults. Also called segmental domes (a term sometimes also used for cloister vaults), or calottes , these have profiles of less than half
1920-539: A major study on the question in 1926 which then became the standard scholarly theory on the origin of minarets for roughly fifty years. Creswell attributed the origin of minaret towers to the influence of Syrian church towers and regarded the spiral or helicoidal minarets of the Abbasid period as deriving from local ziggurat precedents, but rejected the possible influence of the Pharos Lighthouse. He also established that
2048-430: A monumental appearance. The first known minarets built as towers appeared under Abbasid rule. Four towers were added to the Great Mosque of Mecca during its Abbasid reconstruction in the late 8th century. In the 9th century single minaret towers were built in or near the middle of the wall opposite the qibla wall of mosques. These towers were built across the empire in a height to width ratio of around 3:1. One of
2176-437: A number of different names reflecting a variety of shapes, traditions, and symbolic associations. The shapes were derived from traditions of pre-historic shelters made from various impermanent pliable materials and were only later reproduced as vaulting in more durable materials. The hemispherical shape often associated with domes today derives from Greek geometry and Roman standardization, but other shapes persisted, including
2304-521: A pointed and bulbous tradition inherited by some early Islamic mosques. Modern academic study of the topic has been controversial and confused by inconsistent definitions, such as those for cloister vaults and domical vaults. Dictionary definitions of the term "dome" are often general and imprecise. Generally-speaking, it "is non-specific, a blanket-word to describe an hemispherical or similar spanning element." Published definitions include: hemispherical roofs alone; revolved arches ; and vaults on
2432-546: A powerful mortar. The aggregate transitioned over the centuries to pieces of fired clay, then to Roman bricks. By the sixth century, bricks with large amounts of mortar were the principle vaulting materials. Pozzolana appears to have only been used in central Italy. Brick domes were the favored choice for large-space monumental coverings until the Industrial Age , due to their convenience and dependability. Ties and chains of iron or wood could be used to resist stresses. In
2560-626: A short drum, as can be seen at the Shah Cheragh (1852–1853), first appeared in the Qajar period . Domes have remained important in modern mausoleums, and domed cisterns and icehouses remain common sights in the countryside. Minarets A minaret ( / ˌ m ɪ n ə ˈ r ɛ t , ˈ m ɪ n ə ˌ r ɛ t / ; Arabic : منارة , romanized : manāra , or Arabic: مِئْذَنة , romanized: miʾḏana ; Turkish : minare ; Persian : گلدسته , romanized : goldaste )
2688-450: A single arch or a set of multiple projecting nested arches placed diagonally over an internal corner. Squinch forms also include trumpet arches, niche heads (or half-domes), trumpet arches with "anteposed" arches, and muqarnas arches. Squinches transfer the weight of a dome across the gaps created by the corners and into the walls. Pendentives are triangular sections of a sphere, like concave spandrels between arches, and transition from
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#17328522847692816-549: A single point of origin. Their appearance in northern Russian architecture predates the Tatar occupation of Russia and so is not easily explained as the result of that influence. They became popular in the second half of the 15th century in the Low Countries of Northern Europe, possibly inspired by the finials of minarets in Egypt and Syria, and developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in
2944-522: A smaller diameter dome immediately above them, as in the Hagia Sophia, or a drum and dome, as in many Renaissance and post-Renaissance domes, with both forms resulting in greater height. One of the earliest types of ribbed vault, the first known examples are found in the Great Mosque of Córdoba in the 10th century. Rather than meeting in the center of the dome, the ribs characteristically intersect one another off-center, forming an empty polygonal space in
3072-521: A square shaft and are arranged in two tiers: the main shaft, which makes up most of its height, and a much smaller secondary tower above this which is in turn topped by a finial of copper or brass spheres. Some minarets in the Maghreb have octagonal shafts, though this is more characteristic of certain regions or periods; e.g. the minarets of the Great Mosque of Chefchaouen , the Great Mosque of Ouazzane ,
3200-531: A type of dome divided at the base into curved segments, which follow the curve of the elevation . "Fluted" may refer specifically to this pattern as an external feature, such as was common in Mamluk Egypt . The "ribs" of a dome are the radial lines of masonry that extend from the crown down to the springing. The central dome of the Hagia Sophia uses the ribbed method, which accommodates a ring of windows between
3328-542: A vertical axis of a semi-ellipse . Like other "rotational domes" formed by the rotation of a curve around a vertical axis, ellipsoidal domes have circular bases and horizontal sections and are a type of "circular dome" for that reason. Geodesic domes are the upper portion of geodesic spheres. They are composed of a framework of triangles in a polyhedron pattern. The structures are named for geodesics and are based upon geometric shapes such as icosahedrons , octahedrons or tetrahedrons . Such domes can be created using
3456-497: Is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques . Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer ( adhan ) from a muezzin , but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can have a variety of forms, from thick, squat towers to soaring, pencil-thin spires. Two Arabic words are used to denote the minaret tower: manāra and manār . The English word "minaret" originates from
3584-776: Is called a Melon dome. A paraboloid dome is a surface formed by the rotation around a vertical axis of a sector of a parabola. Like other "rotational domes" formed by the rotation of a curve around a vertical axis, paraboloid domes have circular bases and horizontal sections and are a type of "circular dome" for that reason. Because of their shape, paraboloid domes experience only compression, both radially and horizontally. Also called sail vaults , handkerchief vaults , domical vaults (a term sometimes also applied to cloister vaults), pendentive domes (a term that has also been applied to compound domes), Bohemian vaults , or Byzantine domes , this type can be thought of as pendentives that, rather than merely touching each other to form
3712-468: Is elaborately ornamented with painted stucco . Colored tiles, incised carvings, and painted plaster on the mosque are decorated with foliage , flowers, geometric patterns, and Quranic inscriptions . The Bara Gumbad is located in and is a part of the Lodhi Gardens in Delhi , India. The village where the monument stands was earlier called Khairpur. The garden is bounded by Amrita Shergill Marg in
3840-558: Is generally attributed to Sikandar Lodhi, and it is believed to have the earliest constructed full dome of any building in Delhi. The monument is situated near the Tomb of Sikandar Lodhi and Shisha Gumbad . Although the three structures, which share a common raised platform, were all built during the Lodhi reign, they were not constructed at the same time. The intended purpose of the builders of Bara Gumbad
3968-401: Is made a complete and self-supporting ring. The upper portion of a masonry dome is always in compression and is supported laterally, so it does not collapse except as a whole unit and a range of deviations from the ideal in this shallow upper cap are equally stable. Because voussoir domes have lateral support, they can be made much thinner than corresponding arches of the same span. For example,
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4096-482: Is not clear what function these towers served. They do not appear to have been used for the call to prayer and may have been intended instead as visual symbols of the mosque's status. Historical sources also reference an earlier manāra , built of stone, being added to the mosque of Basra in 665 by the Umayyad provincial governor, but it is not entirely clear if it was a tower or what form it had, though it must have had
4224-477: Is not well documented. That the dome was known to early Mesopotamia may explain the existence of domes in both China and the West in the first millennium BC. Another explanation, however, is that the use of the dome shape in construction did not have a single point of origin and was common in virtually all cultures long before domes were constructed with enduring materials. Corbelled stone domes have been found from
4352-490: Is readily available, and often changes from region to region. In the construction of the tall and slender Ottoman minarets, molten iron was poured into pre-cut cavities inside the stones, which then solidified and helped to bind the stones together. This made the structures more resistant to earthquakes and powerful winds. The earliest mosques lacked minarets, and the call to prayer was often performed from smaller tower structures. The early Muslim community of Medina gave
4480-542: Is the igloo , a shelter built from blocks of compact snow and used by the Inuit , among others. The Himba people of Namibia construct "desert igloos" of wattle and daub for use as temporary shelters at seasonal cattle camps, and as permanent homes by the poor. Extraordinarily thin domes of sun-baked clay 20 feet in diameter, 30 feet high, and nearly parabolic in curve, are known from Cameroon . The historical development from structures like these to more sophisticated domes
4608-517: 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. The Seljuk Empire 's notables built tomb-towers, called "Turkish Triangles", as well as cube mausoleums covered with a variety of dome forms. Seljuk domes included conical, semi-circular, and pointed shapes in one or two shells. Shallow semi-circular domes are mainly found from
4736-417: Is unclear: it may have been intended as a free-standing tomb , but no tombstone has been identified, or as a gateway. The area in which Bara Gumbad is situated was formally called Khairpur village. Bada Gumbad was constructed in 1490 CE, and is believed to have the earliest constructed full dome of any building in Delhi. Its construction is generally attributed to Sikandar Lodhi . A mihrab (prayer niche) in
4864-412: The adhān is called from the musallah (prayer hall) via microphone to a speaker system on the minaret. Additionally, minarets historically served a visual symbolic purpose. In the early 9th century, the first minarets were placed opposite the qibla wall. Oftentimes, this placement was not beneficial in reaching the community for the call to prayer. They served as a reminder that
4992-684: The Fatimids , generally refrained from building them during these early centuries. The earliest evidence of minarets being used for hosting the call to prayer dates to the 10th century and it was only towards the 11th century that minaret towers became a near-universal feature of mosques. Next to the Huaishengsi Mosque in Guangzhou is the Tower of Light, also known as the Guangta minaret (1350). The mosque and
5120-636: The Friday mosque (Jama Masjid) of the Bara Gumbad gives the date of construction as 900 AH (Anno Hegirae) of the Islamic lunar calendar . Including the bada gumbad there are four monuments in the Lodhi Gardens ; the other three being Tomb of Sikandar Lodhi , Shisha Gumbad and the tomb of Muhammad Shah (who belonged to the Sayyid dynasty ). The Bada Gumbad is situated approximately 400 metres (1,300 ft) southwest of
5248-755: The Kasbah Mosque of Tangier , and the Great Mosque of Asilah in Morocco or the Ottoman-era minarets of Tunisia such as the Youssef Dey Mosque and the Hammouda Pacha Mosque . Inside the main shaft a staircase, and in other cases a ramp, ascends to the top of the minaret. The minaret at the Great Mosque of Kairouan , built in 836 under Aghlabid rule, is the oldest minaret in North Africa and one of
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5376-484: The Middle East and Central Asia , domes and drums constructed from mud brick and baked brick were sometimes covered with brittle ceramic tiles on the exterior to protect against rain and snow. The new building materials of the 19th century and a better understanding of the forces within structures from the 20th century opened up new possibilities. Iron and steel beams, steel cables, and pre-stressed concrete eliminated
5504-620: The Minaret of Jam , in a remote area of present-day Afghanistan , was built c. 1175 by the Ghurids and features elaborate brick decoration and inscriptions. The Qutb Minar in Delhi , the most monumental minaret in India , was built in 1199 and was designed on the same model as the Minaret of Jam. In later periods, however, minarets in this region became generally less monumental in comparison with
5632-625: The Neolithic period in the ancient Near East , and in the Middle East to Western Europe from antiquity. The kings of Achaemenid Persia held audiences and festivals in domical tents derived from the nomadic traditions of central Asia. Simple domical mausoleums existed in the Hellenistic period. The remains of a large domed circular hall in the Parthian capital city of Nyssa has been dated to perhaps
5760-513: The Safavid dynasty (1501–1732) are characterized by a distinctive bulbous profile and are considered the last generation of Persian domes. They are generally thinner than earlier domes and are decorated with a variety of colored glazed tiles and complex vegetal patterns, and they were influential on those of other Islamic styles, such as the Mughal architecture of India. An exaggerated style of onion dome on
5888-611: The Umayyad Emirate of al-Andalus , emir Hisham I ordered the addition of a ṣawma'a to the Great Mosque of Cordoba in 793. A possible exception to the absence of tower minarets is documented in Caliph al-Walid 's renovation of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina in the early 8th century, during which he built a tower, referred to as a manāra , at each of the mosque's four corners. However, it
6016-470: The University of Kassel in 1983. A masonry dome produces thrusts downward and outward. They are thought of in terms of two kinds of forces at right angles from one another: meridional forces (like the meridians , or lines of longitude, on a globe) are compressive only, and increase towards the base, while hoop forces (like the lines of latitude on a globe) are in compression at the top and tension at
6144-498: The makhbara -style summit disappeared. Later minarets in the Burji Mamluk period (late 14th to early 16th centuries) typically had an octagonal shaft for the first tier, a round shaft on the second, and a lantern structure with finial on the third level. The stone-carved decoration of the minaret also became very extensive and varied from minaret to minaret. Minarets with completely square or rectangular shafts reappeared at
6272-611: The oldest minarets still standing is that of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia , built in 836 and well-preserved today. Other minarets that date from the same period, but less precisely dated, include the minaret of the Friday Mosque of Siraf , now the oldest minaret in Iran, and the minaret opposite the qibla wall at the Great Mosque of Damascus (known as the "Minaret of the Bride"), now
6400-623: The 15th century. It is categorized by the use of multiple minarets. Examples of this style include the monuments of Mughal architecture in the Indian subcontinent , such as the minarets on the roof of the south gate in Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra (1613), the minarets on the Tomb of Jahangir (1628-1638), and the four minarets surrounding the mausoleum of the Taj Mahal . Elsewhere in India, some cities and towns along
6528-404: The 20th century have allowed for large dome-shaped structures that deviate from the traditional compressive structural behavior of masonry domes. Popular usage of the term has expanded to mean "almost any long-span roofing system". The word " cupola " is another word for "dome", and is usually used for a small dome upon a roof or turret . "Cupola" has also been used to describe the inner side of
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#17328522847696656-521: The Abbasid period and remains the most massive historic minaret in the world, involving over 6000 cubic meters of brick masonry. The Abu Dulaf Mosque, built near Samarra and finished in 861, has a smaller minaret of similar shape. In the later Abbasid period (11th to 13th centuries), after the Seljuk period, minarets were typically cylindrical brick towers whose square or polygonal bases were integrated into
6784-470: The Bara Gumbad is unknown and to date remains a mystery. The Friday mosque was constructed in 1494 CE. It was the first mosque to be built in a style that first appeared during the Lodhi Dynasty . Some historians suggest that the Bara Gumbad was built by an unidentified noble in 1490 CE, before being appropriated by Sikander Lodhi in 1494 CE, to provide an entryway to his mosque. Simon Digby argued, that
6912-461: The Bara Gumbad served as a gateway to a large walled enclosure, which included the Shisha Gumbad , identified by the same scholar as the tomb of Bahlul Lodi . Initially, all the monuments were built independently, and were not in one confine. In the early twentieth century, a park was developed, bringing the four monuments in one confine. The park was inaugurated on 9 April 1936 by Lady Willingdon,
7040-445: The Great Mosque of Cordoba in 951–952, which became the model for later minarets in the Maghreb and al-Andalus. Jonathan Bloom has suggested that Abd ar-Rahman III's construction of the minaret – along with his sponsoring of other minarets around the same time in Fez – was partly intended as a visual symbol of his self-declared authority as caliph and may have also been aimed at defying
7168-629: The Netherlands before spreading to Germany, becoming a popular element of the baroque architecture of Central Europe. German bulbous domes were also influenced by Russian and Eastern European domes. The examples found in various European architectural styles are typically wooden. Examples include Kazan Church in Kolomenskoye and the Brighton Pavilion by John Nash . In Islamic architecture, they are typically made of masonry, rather than timber, with
7296-590: The Seljuk Empire, built paired portal minarets from brick that had Iranian origins. In general, mosques in Anatolia had only one minaret and received decorative emphasis while most of the mosque remained plain. Seljuk minarets were built of stone or brick, usually resting on a stone base, and typically had a cylindrical or polygonal shaft that is less slender than later Ottoman minarets. They were sometimes embellished with decorative brickwork or glazed ceramic decoration up
7424-572: The Seljuk era. The double-shell domes were either discontinuous or continuous. The domed enclosure of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan , built in 1086-7 by Nizam al-Mulk , was the largest masonry dome in the Islamic world at that time, had eight ribs, and introduced a new form of corner squinch with two quarter domes supporting a short barrel vault. In 1088 Tāj-al-Molk, a rival of Nizam al-Mulk, built another dome at
7552-479: The Shisha Gumbad, the Bara Gumbad is also a single story structure but has an external semblance of spanning in two floors when viewed from outside. Total floor area of Bara Gumbad (excluding the mosque and the guest house) is 361 square metres (3,886 sq ft). The dome, the mosque and the "mehman khana" are constructed of red, grey and black stone, including grey quartzite and red sandstone . The interior
7680-588: The ancient Greek and Latin domus ("house"), which, up through the Renaissance, labeled a revered house, such as a Domus Dei , or "House of God", regardless of the shape of its roof. This is reflected in the uses of the Italian word duomo , the German/Icelandic/Danish word dom ("cathedral"), and the English word dome as late as 1656, when it meant a "Town-House, Guild-Hall, State-House, and Meeting-House in
7808-424: The base, with the transition in a hemispherical dome occurring at an angle of 51.8 degrees from the top. The thrusts generated by a dome are directly proportional to the weight of its materials. Grounded hemispherical domes generate significant horizontal thrusts at their haunches. The outward thrusts in the lower portion of a hemispherical masonry dome can be counteracted with the use of chains incorporated around
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#17328522847697936-476: The call to prayer from the doorway or roof of the house of Muhammad , which doubled as a place for prayer, and this continued to be the practice in mosques during the period of the four Rashidun Caliphs (632–661). The origin of the minaret is unclear. Many 19th-century and early 20th-century scholars traced the origin of minarets to the Umayyad Caliphate period (661–750) and believed that they imitated
8064-570: The case of the simple dome , the pendentives are part of the same sphere as the dome itself; however, such domes are rare. In the case of the more common compound dome , the pendentives are part of the surface of a larger sphere below that of the dome itself and form a circular base for either the dome or a drum section. The fields of engineering and architecture have lacked common language for domes, with engineering focused on structural behavior and architecture focused on form and symbolism. Additionally, new materials and structural systems in
8192-463: The center. Geometry is a key element of the designs, with the octagon being perhaps the most popular shape used. Whether the arches are structural or purely decorative remains a matter of debate. The type may have an eastern origin, although the issue is also unsettled. Examples are found in Spain, North Africa, Armenia, Iran, France, and Italy. The ellipsoidal dome is a surface formed by the rotation around
8320-420: The centuries from mud, snow, stone, wood, brick, concrete, metal, glass, and plastic. The symbolism associated with domes includes mortuary , celestial , and governmental traditions that have likewise altered over time. The domes of the modern world can be found over religious buildings, legislative chambers, sports stadiums, and a variety of functional structures. The English word "dome" ultimately derives from
8448-840: The church steeples found in Syria in those times. Others suggested that these towers were inspired by the ziggurats of Babylonian and Assyrian shrines in Mesopotamia . Some scholars, such as A. J. Butler and Hermann Thiersch, agreed that the Syrian minarets were derived from church towers but also argued that the minarets of Egypt were inspired by the form of the Pharos Lighthouse in Alexandria (which survived up until medieval times). K. A. C. Creswell , an orientalist and important early-20th-century scholar of Islamic architecture , contributed
8576-508: The church of Santo Tomás de las Ollas in Spain has an oval dome over its oval plan. Other examples of medieval oval domes can be found covering rectangular bays in churches. Oval plan churches became a type in the Renaissance and popular in the Baroque style. The dome built for the basilica of Vicoforte by Francesco Gallo was one of the largest and most complex ever made. Although the ellipse
8704-501: The circle being considered the most perfect of forms. According to E. Baldwin Smith, from the late Stone Age the dome-shaped tomb was used as a reproduction of the ancestral, god-given shelter made permanent as a venerated home of the dead. The instinctive desire to do this resulted in widespread domical mortuary traditions across the ancient world, from the stupas of India to the tholos tombs of Iberia . By Hellenistic and Roman times,
8832-459: The circumference or with external buttressing, although cracking along the meridians is natural. For small or tall domes with less horizontal thrust, the thickness of the supporting arches or walls can be enough to resist deformation, which is why drums tend to be much thicker than the domes they support. Unlike voussoir arches, which require support for each element until the keystone is in place, domes are stable during construction as each level
8960-446: The coast have small mosques with simple staircase minarets. The oldest minarets in Iraq date from the Abbasid period. The Great Mosque of Samarra (848–852) is accompanied by one of the earliest preserved minarets, a 50-metre-high (160 ft) cylindrical brick tower with a spiral staircase wrapped around it, standing outside the walls of the mosque. It is the tallest of the early minarets of
9088-456: The comparable shape in three dimensions to a catenary curve for a two-dimensional arch. Adding a weight to the top of a pointed dome, such as the heavy cupola at the top of Florence Cathedral , changes the optimal shape to more closely match the actual pointed shape of the dome. The pointed profiles of many Gothic domes more closely approximate the optimal dome shape than do hemispheres, which were favored by Roman and Byzantine architects due to
9216-400: The corners of a square bay to the circular base of a dome. The curvature of the pendentives is that of a sphere with a diameter equal to the diagonal of the square bay. Pendentives concentrate the weight of a dome into the corners of the bay. The earliest domes in the Middle East were built with mud-brick and, eventually, with baked brick and stone. Domes of wood allowed for wide spans due to
9344-521: The current tower was reconstructed later in 1296. Under the Fatimids (10th-12th centuries), new mosques generally lacked minarets. One unusual exception is the Mosque of al-Hakim , built between 990 and 1010, which has two minarets at its corners. The two towers have slightly different shapes: both have square bases but one has a cylindrical shaft above this and the other an octagonal shaft. This multi-tier design
9472-493: The details of minarets borrowed from Fatimid designs. Most distinctively, the summits of minarets had a lantern structure topped by a pointed ribbed dome, whose appearance was compared to a mabkhara , or incense burner. This design continued under the early Bahri Mamluks (13th to early 14th century), but soon began to evolve into the shapes distinctive to Mamluk architecture . They became very ornate and usually consisted of three tiers separated by balconies, with each tier having
9600-443: The dome's surface of revolution, or be straight lengths with the connecting points or nodes lying upon the surface of revolution. Single-layer structures are called frame or skeleton types and double-layer structures are truss types, which are used for large spans. When the covering also forms part of the structural system, it is called a stressed skin type. The formed surface type consists of sheets joined at bent edges to form
9728-538: The domical tholos had become the customary cemetery symbol. Domes and tent-canopies were also associated with the heavens in Ancient Persia and the Hellenistic-Roman world. A dome over a square base reflected the geometric symbolism of those shapes. The circle represented perfection, eternity, and the heavens. The square represented the earth. An octagon was intermediate between the two. The distinct symbolism of
9856-474: The earliest mosques had no minarets and he suggested that the first purpose-built minarets were built for the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat in 673. In 1989 Jonathan Bloom published a new study which argued that the first true minaret towers did not appear until the 9th century, under Abbasid rule, and that their initial purpose was not related to the call to prayer. References on Islamic architecture since
9984-466: The early Abbasid minarets were not built to host the call to prayer, but were instead adopted as symbols of Islam that were suited to important congregational mosques . Their association with the muezzin and the call to prayer only developed later. As the first minaret towers were built by the Abbasids and had a symbolic value associated with them, some of the Islamic regimes opposed to the Abbasids, such as
10112-409: The early Islamic period: manār could also mean a "sign" or "mark" (to show one where to go) and both manār and manāra could mean " lighthouse ". The formal function of a minaret is to provide a vantage point from which the muezzin can issue the call to prayer, or adhan . The call to prayer is issued five times each day: dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. In most modern mosques,
10240-475: The effect they have: reinforcing certain frequencies or absorbing them. Also called a corbelled dome , cribbed dome , or false dome , these are different from a 'true dome' in that they consist of purely horizontal layers. As the layers get higher, each is slightly cantilevered , or corbeled , toward the center until meeting at the top. A monumental example is the Mycenaean Treasury of Atreus from
10368-466: The first century AD, showing "...the existence of a monumental domical tradition in Central Asia that had hitherto been unknown and which seems to have preceded Roman Imperial monuments or at least to have grown independently from them." It likely had a wooden dome. Persian architecture likely inherited an architectural tradition of dome-building dating back to the earliest Mesopotamian domes. Due to
10496-862: The first century BC, such as the Tabularium of Rome from 78 BC. Others include the Baths of Antoninus in Carthage (145–160) and the Palatine Chapel at Aachen (13th – 14th century). The most famous example is the Renaissance octagonal dome of Filippo Brunelleschi over the Florence Cathedral. Thomas Jefferson , the third president of the United States, installed an octagonal dome above the West front of his plantation house, Monticello . Also called domes on pendentives or pendentive domes (a term also applied to sail vaults), compound domes have pendentives that support
10624-611: The first examples in Asia Minor date to around 4000 B.C. The geometry was eventually defined using combinations of circular arcs, transitioning at points of tangency. If the Romans created oval domes, it was only in exceptional circumstances. The Roman foundations of the oval plan Church of St. Gereon in Cologne point to a possible example. Domes in the Middle Ages also tended to be circular, though
10752-564: The forefront of Persian architecture as a result. 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
10880-570: The form of an oculus , which may itself be covered with a roof lantern and cupola. Domes have a long architectural lineage that extends back into prehistory . Domes were built in ancient Mesopotamia , and they have been found in Persian , Hellenistic , Roman , and Chinese architecture in the ancient world , as well as among a number of indigenous building traditions throughout the world. Dome structures were common in both Byzantine architecture and Sasanian architecture , which influenced that of
11008-572: The former, via the Turkish version ( minare ). The Arabic word manāra (plural: manārāt ) originally meant a "lamp stand", a cognate of Hebrew menorah . It is assumed to be a derivation of an older reconstructed form, manwara . The other word, manār (plural: manā'ir or manāyir ), means "a place of light". Both words derive from the Arabic root n-w-r , which has a meaning related to "light". Both words also had other meanings attested during
11136-447: The heavenly or cosmic tent stemming from the royal audience tents of Achaemenid and Indian rulers was adopted by Roman rulers in imitation of Alexander the Great , becoming the imperial baldachin . This probably began with Nero , whose " Golden House " also made the dome a feature of palace architecture. The dual sepulchral and heavenly symbolism was adopted by early Christians in both
11264-482: The late Bronze Age . A single or double layer space frame in the form of a dome, a braced dome is a generic term that includes ribbed , Schwedler , three-way grid , lamella or Kiewitt , lattice , and geodesic domes . The different terms reflect different arrangements in the surface members. Braced domes often have a very low weight and are usually used to cover spans of up to 150 meters. Often prefabricated, their component members can either lie on
11392-473: The late 20th century often agree with Bloom's view that the mosques of the Umayyad Caliphate did not have minarets in the form of towers. Instead of towers, some Umayyad mosques were built with platforms or shelters above their roofs that were accessed by a staircase and from which the muezzins could issue the call to prayer. These structures were referred to as a mi'dhana ("place of the adhān" ) or as
11520-452: The level of their balconies. Ottoman architecture followed earlier Seljuk models and continued the Iranian tradition of cylindrical tapering minaret forms with a square base. Classical Ottoman minarets are described as "pencil-shaped" due to their slenderness and sharply-pointed summits, often topped with a crescent moon symbol. The presence of more than one minaret, and of larger minarets,
11648-411: The lower one until they meet at the top. A "false" dome may also refer to a wooden dome. The Italian use of the term finto , meaning "false", can be traced back to the 17th century in the use of vaulting made of reed mats and gypsum mortar. "True" domes are said to be those whose structure is in a state of compression, with constituent elements of wedge-shaped voussoirs , the joints of which align with
11776-414: The minaret merge aspects of Islamic and Chinese architecture . Its circular shaft and the double staircase arrangement inside it resembles the minarets of Iranian and Central Asian architecture, such as the Minaret of Jam. The style of minarets has varied throughout the history of Egypt . The minaret of the 9th-century Ibn Tulun Mosque imitated the spiral minarets of contemporary Abbasid Samarra, though
11904-457: The mosque have domes whereas the remaining two have vaulted roofs (on mosque and "mehman khana"). The central bays feature low domes, while the end-bays feature flat roofs. There are oriel windows to the north and south. Both the oriel windows and the tapering minarets appear to anticipate later architectural styles. The Bara Gumbad is square type construction which sits on a plinth . The mosque measures 20 metres (66 ft) on each side. At
12032-581: The mosques for which they were built. The tradition of building pairs of minarets probably began in the 12th century, but it became especially prominent under the Ilkhanids (13th-14th centuries), who built twin minarets flanking important iwans such as the mosque's entrance. The rise of the Timurid Empire , which heavily patronized art and architecture, led to what is now called the "international Timurid" style which spread from Central Asia during and after
12160-489: The most common style in the eastern Islamic world (in Iran, Central Asia , and South Asia ). During the Seljuk period minarets were tall and highly decorated with geometric and calligraphic design. They were built prolifically, even at smaller mosques or mosque complexes. The Kalyan Minaret in Bukhara remains the most well known of the Seljuk minarets for its use of brick patterned decoration. The tallest minaret of this era,
12288-449: The need for external buttressing and enabled much thinner domes. Whereas earlier masonry domes may have had a radius to thickness ratio of 50, the ratio for modern domes can be in excess of 800. The lighter weight of these domes not only permitted far greater spans, but also allowed for the creation of large movable domes over modern sports stadiums. Experimental rammed earth domes were made as part of work on sustainable architecture at
12416-704: The oldest minaret in the region of Syria (though its upper section was probably rebuilt multiple times). In Samarra , the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate in present-day Iraq , the Great Mosque of Samarra was built in the years 848–852 and featured a massive helicoidal minaret behind its northern wall. Its design was repeated in the nearby Abu Dulaf Mosque (861). The earlier theory which proposed that these helicoidal minarets were inspired by ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats has been challenged and rejected by some later scholars including Richard Ettinghausen , Oleg Grabar , and Jonathan Bloom. Bloom also argues that
12544-409: The oldest minarets in the world. It has the shape of a massive tower with a square base, three levels of decreasing widths, and a total height of 31.5 meters. The first two levels are from the original 9th-century construction but the third level was reconstructed at a later period. Another important minaret for the architectural history of the region is the minaret built by Abd ar-Rahman III for
12672-675: The opposite end of the same mosque with interlacing ribs forming five-pointed stars and pentagons. This is considered the landmark Seljuk dome, and may have inspired subsequent patterning and the domes of the Il-Khanate period. The use of tile and of plain or painted plaster to decorate dome interiors, rather than brick, increased under the Seljuks. Beginning in the Ilkhanate , Persian domes achieved their final configuration of structural supports, zone of transition, drum, and shells, and subsequent evolution
12800-581: The place of a prince during royal ceremonies. Over time such domes became primarily focal points for decoration or the direction of prayer. The use of domes in mausoleums can likewise reflect royal patronage or be seen as representing the honor and prestige that domes symbolized, rather than having any specific funerary meaning. The wide variety of dome forms in medieval Islam reflected dynastic, religious, and social differences as much as practical building considerations. Because domes are concave from below, they can reflect sound and create echoes. A dome may have
12928-462: The rear, the corners and sides of the mosque feature tall tapering semi-circular minars . The east, south, and west are decorated, and feature ogee arch openings, which are set into rectangular frames. The architecture combines bracket and lintel beams, blending Islamic and Hindu architectures . Bara Gumbad is 29 metres (95 ft) high, 20 metres (66 ft) long and 20 metres (66 ft) wide. The walls are 12 metres (39 ft) tall. Like
13056-472: The region was Islamic and helped to distinguish mosques from the surrounding architecture. They also acted as symbols of the political and religious authority of the Muslim rulers who built them. The region's socio-cultural context has influenced the shape, size, and form of minarets. Different regions and periods developed different styles of minarets. Typically, the tower's shaft has a cylindrical, cuboid (square), or octagonal shape. Stairs or ramps inside
13184-458: The relatively light and flexible nature of the material and were the normal method for domed churches by the 7th century, although most domes were built with the other less flexible materials. Wooden domes were protected from the weather by roofing, such as copper or lead sheeting. Domes of cut stone were more expensive and never as large, and timber was used for large spans where brick was unavailable. Roman concrete used an aggregate of stone with
13312-555: The rest of Europe and Islam , respectively, in the Middle Ages . The domes of European Renaissance architecture spread from Italy in the early modern period , while domes were frequently employed in Ottoman architecture at the same time. Baroque and Neoclassical architecture took inspiration from Roman domes. Advancements in mathematics, materials, and production techniques resulted in new dome types. Domes have been constructed over
13440-417: The ribs at the base of the dome. The central dome of St. Peter's Basilica also uses this method. Cultures from pre-history to modern times constructed domed dwellings using local materials. Although it is not known when the first dome was created, sporadic examples of early domed structures have been discovered. The earliest discovered may be four small dwellings made of Mammoth tusks and bones. The first
13568-758: The rival Fatimid Caliphs to the east who did not endorse the construction of minarets at the time. Other important historic minarets in the region are the Almohad -era minarets of the Kutubiyya Mosque and the Kasbah Mosque in Marrakesh , the Hassan Tower in Rabat , and the Giralda in Seville , all from the 12th and early 13th centuries. The Seljuks of Rum , a successor state of
13696-471: The rotation of a curve around a vertical axis, hemispherical domes have circular bases and horizontal sections and are a type of "circular dome" for that reason. They experience vertical compression along their meridians, but horizontally experience compression only in the portion above 51.8 degrees from the top. Below this point, hemispherical domes experience tension horizontally, and usually require buttressing to counteract it. According to E. Baldwin Smith, it
13824-402: The round building may be called a " rotunda ". Drums are also called " tholobates " and may or may not contain windows. A " tambour " or " lantern " is the equivalent structure over a dome's oculus, supporting a cupola. When the base of the dome does not match the plan of the supporting walls beneath it (for example, a dome's circular base over a square bay ), techniques are employed to bridge
13952-490: The scarcity of wood in many areas of the Iranian plateau and Greater Iran , domes were an important part of vernacular architecture throughout Persian history. The Persian invention of the squinch , a series of concentric arches forming a half-cone over the corner of a room, enabled the transition from the walls of a square chamber to an octagonal base for a dome in a way reliable enough for large constructions and domes moved to
14080-599: The structure of the mosque itself. Their main cylindrical shafts were tapered and culminated in muqarnas cornices supporting a balcony, above which is another small cylindrical turret topped by a dome. Two examples of this style are the Mosque of al-Khaffafin and the Mosque of Qumriyya. Minarets in the Maghreb (region encompassing present-day Algeria , Libya , Mauritania , Morocco , Tunisia , and Western Sahara ) and historical al-Andalus (present-day Gibraltar , Portugal , Spain , and Southern France ) traditionally have
14208-452: The structure to be a burial place. The purpose Bara Gumbad is unknown. Bara Gumbad is grouped together with a mosque and "mehman khana" which is a smaller structure with five bays. All the structures are constructed on a 4 metres (13 ft) high platform, with a total area of 1,050 square metres (11,302 sq ft). The platform measures 30 metres (98 ft) (east-west) and 25 metres (82 ft) (north-south). Three out of five bays in
14336-465: The structure. Also called domical vaults (a term sometimes also applied to sail vaults), polygonal domes , coved domes , gored domes , segmental domes (a term sometimes also used for saucer domes), paneled vaults , or pavilion vaults , these are domes that maintain a polygonal shape in their horizontal cross section. The component curved surfaces of these vaults are called severies , webs , or cells . The earliest known examples date to
14464-453: The thick and heavy bulging portion serving to buttress against the tendency of masonry domes to spread at their bases. The Taj Mahal is a famous example. An oval dome is a dome of oval shape in plan, profile, or both. The term comes from the Latin ovum , meaning "egg". The earliest oval domes were used by convenience in corbelled stone huts as rounded but geometrically undefined coverings, and
14592-461: The tomb and 75 metres (246 ft) south of Shisha Gumbad. During the rule of Sikander Lodhi, the Bara Gumbad, the adjacent mosque and the " mehman khana " (guest house) were constructed. The Bara Gumbad is speculated to serve as a gateway to the Friday mosque. However owing to the constitutions date, placement and stylistic differences the theory of gateway is not supported. The purpose and significance of
14720-411: The tower climb to the top in a counterclockwise fashion. Some minarets have two or three narrow staircases fitted inside one another in order to allow multiple individuals to safely descend and ascend simultaneously. At the top of the stairs, a balcony encircles the upper sections of the tower and from here the muezzin may give the call to prayer. Some minaret traditions featured multiple balconies along
14848-540: The tower's shaft. The summit often finishes in a lantern -like structure and/or a small dome, conical roof, or curving stone cap, which is in turn topped by a decorative metal finial . Different architectural traditions also placed minarets at different positions relative to the mosque. The number of minarets by mosques was also not fixed: originally only one minaret accompanied a mosque, but some later traditions constructed more, especially for larger or more prestigious mosques. Minarets are built out of any material that
14976-544: The two shells of the dome have significantly different profiles, which spread rapidly throughout the region. The development of taller drums also continued into the Timurid period. The large, bulbous, fluted domes on tall drums that are characteristic of 15th century Timurid architecture were the culmination of the Central Asian and Iranian tradition of tall domes with glazed tile coverings in blue and other colors. The domes of
15104-505: The two. One technique is to use corbelling, progressively projecting horizontal layers from the top of the supporting wall to the base of the dome, such as the corbelled triangles often used in Seljuk and Ottoman architecture. The simplest technique is to use diagonal lintels across the corners of the walls to create an octagonal base. 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
15232-477: The use of domes in architecture and in the ciborium , a domical canopy like the baldachin used as a ritual covering for relics or the church altar . The celestial symbolism of the dome, however, was the preeminent one by the Christian era . In the early centuries of Islam, domes were closely associated with royalty. A dome built in front of the mihrab of a mosque, for example, was at least initially meant to emphasize
15360-615: The very end of the Mamluk period during the reign of Sultan al-Ghuri (r. 1501–1516). During al-Ghuri's reign, the lantern summits were also doubled – as with the minaret of the Mosque of Qanibay Qara or al-Ghuri's minaret at the al-Azhar Mosque – or even quadrupled – as with the original minaret of al-Ghuri's madrasa . Starting with the Seljuk period (11th and 12th centuries), minarets in Iran had cylindrical shafts with square or octagonal bases that taper towards their summit. These minarets became
15488-508: The west, northwest and north, Max MuellerMarg on the east and Lodhi Road on the south side. Safdarjang Tomb is situated on southwest corner of the Lodhi Garden. Dome 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. The dome's apex may be closed or may be open in
15616-474: The wife of Viceroy Lord Willingdon . The park was originally called the Lady Willingdon Park after her, but was renamed to Lodhi Gardens after independence of India in 1947. It is speculated that the Bara Gumbad was constructed to provide a gateway to the nearby mosque or a large walled enclosure. Although the structure does not house any tomb, there is a platform in the central courtyard that suggests
15744-515: Was a shape likely known to the Assyrians, defined by Greek theoretical mathematicians, and standardized by Roman builders. Bulbous domes bulge out beyond their base diameters, offering a profile greater than a hemisphere. An onion dome is a greater than hemispherical dome with a pointed top in an ogee profile. They are found in the Near East , Middle East , Persia, and India and may not have had
15872-579: Was found by a farmer in Mezhirich , Ukraine, in 1965 while he was digging in his cellar and archaeologists unearthed three more. They date from 19,280 – 11,700 BC. In modern times , the creation of relatively simple dome-like structures has been documented among various indigenous peoples around the world. The wigwam was made by Native Americans using arched branches or poles covered with grass or hides. The Efé people of central Africa construct similar structures , using leaves as shingles. Another example
16000-512: Was known, in practice, domes of this shape were created by combining segments of circles. Popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, oval and elliptical plan domes can vary their dimensions in three axes or two axes. A sub-type with the long axis having a semicircular section is called a Murcia dome, as in the Chapel of the Junterones at Murcia Cathedral . When the short axis has a semicircular section, it
16128-449: Was only found in the minarets of the great mosques at Mecca and Medina at that time, suggesting a possible link to those designs. Shortly after their construction, the lower sections of the minarets were encased in massive square bastions, for reasons that are not clearly known, and the tops were rebuilt in 1303 by a Mamluk sultan. Under the Ayyubids (late 12th to mid-13th centuries),
16256-609: Was reserved for mosques commissioned by the Ottoman sultans themselves. Taller minarets often also had multiple balconies (known as şerefe in Turkish) along their shafts instead of one. The Üç Şerefeli Mosque in Edirne , finished in 1447, was the first sultanic mosque to have multiple minarets with multiple balconies. Of its four minarets, the northwestern minaret was the tallest Ottoman minaret up to that time, rising to 67 metres. Its height
16384-405: Was restricted to variations in form and shell geometry. Characteristic of these domes are the use of high drums and several types of discontinuous double-shells, and the development of triple-shells and internal stiffeners occurred at this time. The construction of tomb towers decreased. The 7.5 meter wide double dome of Soltan Bakht Agha Mausoleum (1351–1352) is the earliest known example in which
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