Yammoune is a lake , nature reserve , village and municipality situated 27 kilometres (17 mi) northwest of Baalbek in Baalbek District , Baalbek-Hermel Governorate , Lebanon . The village has a few hundred inhabitants.
107-615: There are the ruins of a Roman temple (possibly with phoenician-greek origins) in the village that are included in a grouping of Roman Temples of the Beqaa Valley . It is said to be dedicated to Venus (or possibly also Astarte , before the Roman era in the region). Part of two enclosure walls and the temple foundations remain intact. Many inscriptions, written in Latin were found at the temple site. A few Ancient Greek inscriptions were also found. It
214-620: A Hellenistic trend, the Corinthian order and its variant the Composite order were most common in surviving Roman temples, but for small temples like that at Alcántara , a simple Tuscan order could be used. Vitruvius does not recognise the Composite order in his writings, and covers the Tuscan order only as Etruscan; Renaissance writers formalized them from observing surviving buildings. The front of
321-399: A fault . Water often lubricates faults, filling in fractures and jogs. About 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) below the surface, under very high temperatures and pressures, the water carries high concentrations of carbon dioxide, silica, and gold. During an earthquake, the fault jog suddenly opens wider. The water inside the void instantly vaporizes, flashing to steam and forcing silica, which forms
428-527: A golden fish in Yammoune lake to escape from the vengeance of Adonis 's wrathful brother Typhon . The lake is filled from a water cavern to the west of the temple has only one outflow, through a big hole and Robert Boulanger suggested that it might dry up entirely at the end of summer. The valley of Ouyoun Ergush leads from Yammoune towards Marjhine . A network of rock-cut irrigation channels and watercourses lead from Lake Yammoune to provide irrigation for
535-472: A cathedral-like position in the official religion of Rome. It was destroyed by fire three times, and rapidly rebuilt in contemporary styles. The first building, traditionally dedicated in 509 BC, has been claimed to have been almost 60 m × 60 m (200 ft × 200 ft), much larger than other Roman temples for centuries after, although its size is heavily disputed by specialists. Whatever its size, its influence on other early Roman temples
642-483: A dilute solution of gold(III) chloride or chlorauric acid . Unlike sulfur, phosphorus reacts directly with gold at elevated temperatures to produce gold phosphide (Au 2 P 3 ). Gold readily dissolves in mercury at room temperature to form an amalgam , and forms alloys with many other metals at higher temperatures. These alloys can be produced to modify the hardness and other metallurgical properties, to control melting point or to create exotic colors. Gold
749-516: A four-columned Roman triumphal arch and added a pediment above; San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice , begun 1566, by Andrea Palladio , which has two superimposed temple fronts, one low and wide, the other tall and narrow; the Villa Capra "La Rotonda" , 1567 on, also by Palladio, with four isolated temple fronts on each side of a rectangle, with a large central dome. In Baroque architecture two temple fronts, often of different orders, superimposed one above
856-572: A gold-from-seawater swindle in the United States in the 1890s, as did an English fraudster in the early 1900s. Fritz Haber did research on the extraction of gold from sea water in an effort to help pay Germany 's reparations following World War I . Based on the published values of 2 to 64 ppb of gold in seawater, a commercially successful extraction seemed possible. After analysis of 4,000 water samples yielding an average of 0.004 ppb, it became clear that extraction would not be possible, and he ended
963-830: A golden hue to metallic caesium . Common colored gold alloys include the distinctive eighteen-karat rose gold created by the addition of copper. Alloys containing palladium or nickel are also important in commercial jewelry as these produce white gold alloys. Fourteen-karat gold-copper alloy is nearly identical in color to certain bronze alloys, and both may be used to produce police and other badges . Fourteen- and eighteen-karat gold alloys with silver alone appear greenish-yellow and are referred to as green gold . Blue gold can be made by alloying with iron , and purple gold can be made by alloying with aluminium . Less commonly, addition of manganese , indium , and other elements can produce more unusual colors of gold for various applications. Colloidal gold , used by electron-microscopists,
1070-514: A hill, probably had many wide steps at the approach to the main front, followed by a flat area before the final few steps. After the eclipse of the Etruscan models, the Greek classical orders in all their details were closely followed in the façades of Roman temples, as in other prestigious buildings, with the direct adoption of Greek models apparently beginning around 200 BC, under the late Republic. But
1177-548: A huge pilgrimage complex of the 1st century BC led visitors up several levels with large buildings on a steep hillside, before they eventually reached the sanctuary itself, a much smaller circular building. A caesareum was a temple devoted to the Imperial cult . Caesarea were located throughout the Roman Empire , and often funded by the imperial government, tending to replace state spending on new temples to other gods, and becoming
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#17328558381661284-552: A large alluvial deposit. The mines at Roşia Montană in Transylvania were also very large, and until very recently, still mined by opencast methods. They also exploited smaller deposits in Britain , such as placer and hard-rock deposits at Dolaucothi . The various methods they used are well described by Pliny the Elder in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia written towards the end of
1391-462: A novel type of metal-halide perovskite material consisting of Au and Au cations in its crystal structure has been found. It has been shown to be unexpectedly stable at normal conditions. Gold pentafluoride , along with its derivative anion, AuF − 6 , and its difluorine complex , gold heptafluoride , is the sole example of gold(V), the highest verified oxidation state. Some gold compounds exhibit aurophilic bonding , which describes
1498-550: A number of senior posts in the Iranian government. He wrote about the village “Their men are courageous and mostly armed ... They don’t submit to government authority and don’t pay for water and electricity. They have fought several times with neighbouring Christian villages and have won. They like the [Shiite] clergy.” The village lies on the Yammoune Fault line, a geological fault responsible for several historical earthquakes in
1605-520: A scientific and cultural nature reserve since 1998 and is known for distinguishing juniper trees. The area is popular as a hiking trail . Roman temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture , and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture , though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain "the most obvious symbol of Roman architecture". Their construction and maintenance
1712-401: A sheet of 1 square metre (11 sq ft), and an avoirdupois ounce into 28 square metres (300 sq ft). Gold leaf can be beaten thin enough to become semi-transparent. The transmitted light appears greenish-blue because gold strongly reflects yellow and red. Such semi-transparent sheets also strongly reflect infrared light, making them useful as infrared (radiant heat) shields in
1819-517: A solution of Au(OH) 3 in concentrated H 2 SO 4 produces red crystals of gold(II) sulfate , Au 2 (SO 4 ) 2 . Originally thought to be a mixed-valence compound, it has been shown to contain Au 4+ 2 cations, analogous to the better-known mercury(I) ion, Hg 2+ 2 . A gold(II) complex, the tetraxenonogold(II) cation, which contains xenon as a ligand, occurs in [AuXe 4 ](Sb 2 F 11 ) 2 . In September 2023,
1926-450: A statue of Adonis in the temple, carrying an ear of corn in one hand and a quivver and a lamb in the other. He stored the statue at a museum he founded in the ruins of Baalbek . Alouf also found a Roman road measuring 200 metres (0.12 mi), located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) southeast of the lake. He also found another square building measuring approximately 12 square metres (130 sq ft) next to this road. The building
2033-470: Is Au with a half-life of 2.27 days. Gold's least stable isomer is Au with a half-life of only 7 ns. Au has three decay paths: β decay, isomeric transition , and alpha decay. No other isomer or isotope of gold has three decay paths. The possible production of gold from a more common element, such as lead , has long been a subject of human inquiry, and the ancient and medieval discipline of alchemy often focused on it; however,
2140-696: Is Au , which decays by proton emission with a half-life of 30 μs. Most of gold's radioisotopes with atomic masses below 197 decay by some combination of proton emission , α decay , and β decay . The exceptions are Au , which decays by electron capture, and Au , which decays most often by electron capture (93%) with a minor β decay path (7%). All of gold's radioisotopes with atomic masses above 197 decay by β decay. At least 32 nuclear isomers have also been characterized, ranging in atomic mass from 170 to 200. Within that range, only Au , Au , Au , Au , and Au do not have isomers. Gold's most stable isomer
2247-648: Is also known, an example of a mixed-valence complex . Gold does not react with oxygen at any temperature and, up to 100 °C, is resistant to attack from ozone: Au + O 2 ⟶ ( no reaction ) {\displaystyle {\ce {Au + O2 ->}}({\text{no reaction}})} Au + O 3 → t < 100 ∘ C ( no reaction ) {\displaystyle {\ce {Au{}+O3->[{} \atop {t<100^{\circ }{\text{C}}}]}}({\text{no reaction}})} Some free halogens react to form
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#17328558381662354-520: Is also used in infrared shielding, the production of colored glass , gold leafing , and tooth restoration . Certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatory agents in medicine. Gold is the most malleable of all metals. It can be drawn into a wire of single-atom width, and then stretched considerably before it breaks. Such nanowires distort via the formation, reorientation, and migration of dislocations and crystal twins without noticeable hardening. A single gram of gold can be beaten into
2461-427: Is always richer at the exposed surface of gold-bearing veins, owing to the oxidation of accompanying minerals followed by weathering; and by washing of the dust into streams and rivers, where it collects and can be welded by water action to form nuggets. Gold sometimes occurs combined with tellurium as the minerals calaverite , krennerite , nagyagite , petzite and sylvanite (see telluride minerals ), and as
2568-513: Is attributed to wind-blown dust or rivers. At 10 parts per quadrillion, the Earth's oceans would hold 15,000 tonnes of gold. These figures are three orders of magnitude less than reported in the literature prior to 1988, indicating contamination problems with the earlier data. A number of people have claimed to be able to economically recover gold from sea water , but they were either mistaken or acted in an intentional deception. Prescott Jernegan ran
2675-484: Is considered likely to be initially very small and of Phoenician origin, but it was greatly enlarged and improved by the Romans Ernest Renan visited the site and discovered sections of a frieze and parts of pediment attributed to the temple. A partly broken cockle shell with a figure of a goddess with outstretched arms was also found recently during ploughing by a tractor . The ancient name of Yammoune
2782-464: Is found in ores in rock formed from the Precambrian time onward. It most often occurs as a native metal , typically in a metal solid solution with silver (i.e. as a gold/silver alloy ). Such alloys usually have a silver content of 8–10%. Electrum is elemental gold with more than 20% silver, and is commonly known as white gold . Electrum's color runs from golden-silvery to silvery, dependent upon
2889-465: Is most often called the oldest since this treasure is the largest and most diverse. Gold artifacts probably made their first appearance in Ancient Egypt at the very beginning of the pre-dynastic period, at the end of the fifth millennium BC and the start of the fourth, and smelting was developed during the course of the 4th millennium; gold artifacts appear in the archeology of Lower Mesopotamia during
2996-453: Is not known however some have suggested that it was once the location of a Festival of Adonis . The temple is situated on a hill, approximately 300 metres (980 ft) from the main spring in the area, the Naba al-Arbain . It lies next to the lake where it is considered ancient worshippers took pilgrimage from the temple at Afqa to purify themselves in the temple waters. Michael Alouf found
3103-528: Is now questioned. The gold-bearing Witwatersrand rocks were laid down between 700 and 950 million years before the Vredefort impact. These gold-bearing rocks had furthermore been covered by a thick layer of Ventersdorp lavas and the Transvaal Supergroup of rocks before the meteor struck, and thus the gold did not actually arrive in the asteroid/meteorite. What the Vredefort impact achieved, however,
3210-588: Is one of the least reactive chemical elements, being the second-lowest in the reactivity series . It is solid under standard conditions . Gold often occurs in free elemental ( native state ), as nuggets or grains, in rocks , veins , and alluvial deposits . It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver (as in electrum ), naturally alloyed with other metals like copper and palladium , and mineral inclusions such as within pyrite . Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium ( gold tellurides ). Gold
3317-427: Is red if the particles are small; larger particles of colloidal gold are blue. Gold has only one stable isotope , Au , which is also its only naturally occurring isotope, so gold is both a mononuclidic and monoisotopic element . Thirty-six radioisotopes have been synthesized, ranging in atomic mass from 169 to 205. The most stable of these is Au with a half-life of 186.1 days. The least stable
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3424-553: Is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia (a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid ), forming a soluble tetrachloroaurate anion . Gold is insoluble in nitric acid alone, which dissolves silver and base metals , a property long used to refine gold and confirm the presence of gold in metallic substances, giving rise to the term ' acid test '. Gold dissolves in alkaline solutions of cyanide , which are used in mining and electroplating . Gold also dissolves in mercury , forming amalgam alloys, and as
3531-484: Is similarly unaffected by most bases. It does not react with aqueous , solid , or molten sodium or potassium hydroxide . It does however, react with sodium or potassium cyanide under alkaline conditions when oxygen is present to form soluble complexes. Common oxidation states of gold include +1 (gold(I) or aurous compounds) and +3 (gold(III) or auric compounds). Gold ions in solution are readily reduced and precipitated as metal by adding any other metal as
3638-702: Is the Tempietto of Donato Bramante in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome, c. 1502, which has been widely admired ever since. Though the Pantheon's large circular domed cella, with a conventional portico front, is "unique" in Roman architecture, it has been copied many times by modern architects. Versions include the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Ariccia by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1664), which followed his work restoring
3745-585: Is the soluble form of gold encountered in mining. The binary gold halides , such as AuCl , form zigzag polymeric chains, again featuring linear coordination at Au. Most drugs based on gold are Au(I) derivatives. Au(III) (referred to as auric) is a common oxidation state, and is illustrated by gold(III) chloride , Au 2 Cl 6 . The gold atom centers in Au(III) complexes, like other d compounds, are typically square planar , with chemical bonds that have both covalent and ionic character. Gold(I,III) chloride
3852-634: Is thought to have been delivered to Earth by asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment , about 4 billion years ago. Gold which is reachable by humans has, in one case, been associated with a particular asteroid impact. The asteroid that formed Vredefort impact structure 2.020 billion years ago is often credited with seeding the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa with the richest gold deposits on earth. However, this scenario
3959-505: Is thought to have been produced in supernova nucleosynthesis , and from the collision of neutron stars , and to have been present in the dust from which the Solar System formed. Traditionally, gold in the universe is thought to have formed by the r-process (rapid neutron capture) in supernova nucleosynthesis , but more recently it has been suggested that gold and other elements heavier than iron may also be produced in quantity by
4066-416: Is unaffected by most acids. It does not react with hydrofluoric , hydrochloric , hydrobromic , hydriodic , sulfuric , or nitric acid . It does react with selenic acid , and is dissolved by aqua regia , a 1:3 mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid . Nitric acid oxidizes the metal to +3 ions, but only in minute amounts, typically undetectable in the pure acid because of the chemical equilibrium of
4173-645: The Chu (state) circulated the Ying Yuan , one kind of square gold coin. In Roman metallurgy , new methods for extracting gold on a large scale were developed by introducing hydraulic mining methods, especially in Hispania from 25 BC onwards and in Dacia from 106 AD onwards. One of their largest mines was at Las Medulas in León , where seven long aqueducts enabled them to sluice most of
4280-583: The Old Testament , starting with Genesis 2:11 (at Havilah ), the story of the golden calf , and many parts of the temple including the Menorah and the golden altar. In the New Testament , it is included with the gifts of the magi in the first chapters of Matthew. The Book of Revelation 21:21 describes the city of New Jerusalem as having streets "made of pure gold, clear as crystal". Exploitation of gold in
4387-701: The Ptolemaic dynasty , the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt , to honour her dead lover Julius Caesar , then converted by Augustus to his own cult. During the 4th century, after the Empire had come under Christian rule, it was converted to a church. The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill was the oldest large temple in Rome, a capitolium dedicated to the Capitoline Triad consisting of Jupiter and his companion deities, Juno and Minerva , and had
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4494-637: The Roman Forum , originally the Temple of Romulus , was not dedicated as a church until 527. The best known is the Pantheon, Rome , which, however, is highly untypical, being a very large circular temple with a magnificent concrete roof, behind a conventional portico front. The English word "temple" derives from the Latin templum , which was originally not the building itself, but a sacred space surveyed and plotted ritually. The Roman architect Vitruvius always uses
4601-406: The Temple of Hercules Victor in Rome, which was perhaps by a Greek architect, these survivors had an unbroken colonnade encircling the building, and a low, Greek-style podium. Different formulae were followed in the Pantheon, Rome and a small temple at Baalbek (usually called the "Temple of Venus"), where the door is behind a full portico, though very different ways of doing this are used. In
4708-641: The Varna Necropolis near Lake Varna and the Black Sea coast, thought to be the earliest "well-dated" finding of gold artifacts in history. Several prehistoric Bulgarian finds are considered no less old – the golden treasures of Hotnitsa, Durankulak , artifacts from the Kurgan settlement of Yunatsite near Pazardzhik , the golden treasure Sakar, as well as beads and gold jewelry found in the Kurgan settlement of Provadia – Solnitsata ("salt pit"). However, Varna gold
4815-418: The colonnade , or at least down the sides. The description of the Greek models used here is a generalization of classical Greek ideals, and later Hellenistic buildings often do not reflect them. For example, the "Temple of Dionysus" on the terrace by the theatre at Pergamon (Ionic, 2nd century BC, on a hillside), had many steps in front, and no columns beyond the portico. The Parthenon , also approached up
4922-470: The reducing agent . The added metal is oxidized and dissolves, allowing the gold to be displaced from solution and be recovered as a solid precipitate. Less common oxidation states of gold include −1, +2, and +5. The −1 oxidation state occurs in aurides, compounds containing the Au anion . Caesium auride (CsAu), for example, crystallizes in the caesium chloride motif; rubidium, potassium, and tetramethylammonium aurides are also known. Gold has
5029-518: The templum ; often on one of the narrow extensions of the podium to the side of the steps. Especially under the Empire , exotic foreign cults gained followers in Rome, and were the local religions in large parts of the expanded Empire. These often had very different practices, some preferring underground places of worship, while others, like Early Christians , worshiped in houses. Some remains of many Roman temples still survive, above all in Rome itself, but
5136-579: The 80s AD, under Domitian – the third building only lasted five years before burning down again. After a major sacking by Vandals in 455, and comprehensive removal of stone in the Renaissance, only foundations can now be seen, in the basement of the Capitoline Museums . The sculptor Flaminio Vacca (d 1605) claimed that the life-size Medici lion he carved to match a Roman survival, now in Florence ,
5243-726: The Glory of the Great Army"), the Virginia State Capitol as originally built in 1785–88, and Birmingham Town Hall (1832–34). Small Roman circular temples with colonnades have often been used as models, either for single buildings, large or small, or elements such as domes raised on drums, in buildings on another plan such as St Peters, Rome , St Paul's Cathedral in London and the United States Capitol . The great progenitor of these
5350-509: The Greeks, with subsequent heavy direct influence from Greece. Public religious ceremonies of the official Roman religion took place outdoors and not within the temple building. Some ceremonies were processions that started at, visited, or ended with a temple or shrine, where a ritual object might be stored and brought out for use, or where an offering would be deposited. Sacrifices , chiefly of animals , would take place at an open-air altar within
5457-409: The Pantheon only the portico has columns, and the "thoroughly uncomfortable" exterior meeting of the portico and circular cella are often criticised. At Baalbek, a wide portico with a broken pediment is matched by four other columns round the building, with the architrave in scooped curving sections, each ending in a projection supported by a column. At Praeneste (modern Palestrina) near Rome,
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#17328558381665564-607: The Roman original, Belle Isle House (1774) in England, and Thomas Jefferson 's library at the University of Virginia , The Rotunda (1817–26). The Pantheon was much the largest and most accessible complete classical temple front known to the Italian Renaissance, and was the standard exemplar when these were revived. Most of the best survivals had been converted to churches (and sometimes later mosques), which some remain. Often
5671-463: The Roman temple front. An archetypical pattern for churches in Georgian architecture was set by St Martin-in-the-Fields in London (1720), by James Gibbs , who boldly added to the classical temple façade at the west end a large steeple on top of a tower, set back slightly from the main frontage. This formula shocked purists and foreigners, but became accepted and was very widely copied, at home and in
5778-525: The area. A new section of the fault was discovered in 2010 by Ata Elias of the American University of Beirut . They studied samples from a trench in Marjahine that will allow them to improve dating on historical earthquakes and better predict future ones. Lake Yammoune is home to Lebanon's only endemic fish , Pseudophoxinus libani . In Phoenician Mythology , the goddess Astarte turned herself into
5885-593: The building of new imperial temples mostly ceased after the reign of Marcus Aurelius (d. 180), though the Temple of Romulus on the Roman Forum was built and dedicated by the Emperor Maxentius to his son Valerius Romulus , who died in childhood in 309 and was deified. One of the earliest and most prominent of the caesarea was the Caesareum of Alexandria , located on the harbour. It was begun by Cleopatra VII of
5992-706: The cella, and most public ceremonies were performed outside of the cella where the sacrificial altar was located, on the portico , with a crowd gathered in the temple precinct. The most common architectural plan had a rectangular temple raised on a high podium , with a clear front with a portico at the top of steps, and a triangular pediment above columns. The sides and rear of the building had much less architectural emphasis, and typically no entrances. There were also circular plans, generally with columns all round, and outside Italy there were many compromises with traditional local styles. The Roman form of temple developed initially from Etruscan temples , themselves influenced by
6099-545: The colonies, for example at St Andrew's Church, Chennai in India and St. Paul's Chapel in New York City (1766). Examples of modern buildings that stick more faithfully to the ancient rectangular temple form are only found from the 18th century onwards. Versions of the Roman temple as a discrete block include La Madeleine, Paris (1807), now a church but built by Napoleon as a Temple de la Gloire de la Grande Armée ("Temple to
6206-1409: The corresponding gold halides. Gold is strongly attacked by fluorine at dull-red heat to form gold(III) fluoride AuF 3 . Powdered gold reacts with chlorine at 180 °C to form gold(III) chloride AuCl 3 . Gold reacts with bromine at 140 °C to form a combination of gold(III) bromide AuBr 3 and gold(I) bromide AuBr, but reacts very slowly with iodine to form gold(I) iodide AuI: 2 Au + 3 F 2 → Δ 2 AuF 3 {\displaystyle {\ce {2Au{}+3F2->[{} \atop \Delta ]2AuF3}}} 2 Au + 3 Cl 2 → Δ 2 AuCl 3 {\displaystyle {\ce {2Au{}+3Cl2->[{} \atop \Delta ]2AuCl3}}} 2 Au + 2 Br 2 → Δ AuBr 3 + AuBr {\displaystyle {\ce {2Au{}+2Br2->[{} \atop \Delta ]AuBr3{}+AuBr}}} 2 Au + I 2 → Δ 2 AuI {\displaystyle {\ce {2Au{}+I2->[{} \atop \Delta ]2AuI}}} Gold does not react with sulfur directly, but gold(III) sulfide can be made by passing hydrogen sulfide through
6313-424: The densest element, osmium , is 22.588 ± 0.015 g/cm . Whereas most metals are gray or silvery white, gold is slightly reddish-yellow. This color is determined by the frequency of plasma oscillations among the metal's valence electrons, in the ultraviolet range for most metals but in the visible range for gold due to relativistic effects affecting the orbitals around gold atoms. Similar effects impart
6420-615: The distinctive classical features, and may have had considerable continuity with pre-Roman temples of the Celtic religion . Romano-Celtic temples were often circular, and circular temples of various kinds were built by the Romans. Greek models were available in tholos shrines and some other buildings , as assembly halls and various other functions. Temples of the goddess Vesta , which were usually small, typically had this shape, as in those at Rome and Tivoli (see list), which survive in part. Like
6527-540: The distinctive differences in the general arrangement of temples between the Etruscan-Roman style and the Greek, as outlined above, were retained. However the idealized proportions between the different elements in the orders set out by the only significant Roman writer on architecture to survive, Vitruvius , and subsequent Italian Renaissance writers, do not reflect actual Roman practice, which could be very variable, though always aiming at balance and harmony. Following
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#17328558381666634-664: The early 4th millennium. As of 1990, gold artifacts found at the Wadi Qana cave cemetery of the 4th millennium BC in West Bank were the earliest from the Levant. Gold artifacts such as the golden hats and the Nebra disk appeared in Central Europe from the 2nd millennium BC Bronze Age . The oldest known map of a gold mine was drawn in the 19th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt (1320–1200 BC), whereas
6741-426: The extensive painted statuary that decorated the rooflines, and the elaborate revetments and antefixes , in colourful terracotta in earlier examples, that enlivened the entablature . Etruscan and Roman temples emphasised the front of the building, which followed Greek temple models and typically consisted of wide steps leading to a portico with columns, a pronaos , and usually a triangular pediment above, which
6848-574: The first written reference to gold was recorded in the 12th Dynasty around 1900 BC. Egyptian hieroglyphs from as early as 2600 BC describe gold, which King Tushratta of the Mitanni claimed was "more plentiful than dirt" in Egypt. Egypt and especially Nubia had the resources to make them major gold-producing areas for much of history. One of the earliest known maps, known as the Turin Papyrus Map , shows
6955-403: The gold acts simply as a solute, this is not a chemical reaction . A relatively rare element, gold is a precious metal that has been used for coinage , jewelry , and other works of art throughout recorded history . In the past, a gold standard was often implemented as a monetary policy . Gold coins ceased to be minted as a circulating currency in the 1930s, and the world gold standard
7062-563: The highest electron affinity of any metal, at 222.8 kJ/mol, making Au a stable species, analogous to the halides . Gold also has a –1 oxidation state in covalent complexes with the group 4 transition metals, such as in titanium tetraauride and the analogous zirconium and hafnium compounds. These chemicals are expected to form gold-bridged dimers in a manner similar to titanium(IV) hydride . Gold(II) compounds are usually diamagnetic with Au–Au bonds such as [ Au(CH 2 ) 2 P(C 6 H 5 ) 2 ] 2 Cl 2 . The evaporation of
7169-461: The large pieces of massive columns were less easy to remove and make use of; hence the podium, minus facing, and some columns are often all that remain. In most cases loose pieces of stone have been removed from the site, and some such as capitals may be found in local museums, along with non-architectural items excavated, such as terracotta votive statuettes or amulets, which are often found in large numbers. Very little indeed survives in place from
7276-443: The late Republic there was a switch to using Greek classical and Hellenistic styles, without much change in the key features of the form. The Etruscans were a people of northern Italy, whose civilization was at its peak in the seventh century BC. The Etruscans were already influenced by early Greek architecture , so Roman temples were distinctive but with both Etruscan and Greek features. Surviving temples (both Greek and Roman) lack
7383-524: The main entrance of grand buildings, but often flanked by large wings or set in courtyards. This flexibility has allowed the Roman temple front to be used in buildings made for a wide variety of purposes. The colonnade may no longer be pushed forward with a pronaus porch, and it may not be raised above the ground, but the essential shape remains the same. Among thousands of examples are the White House , Buckingham Palace , and St Peters, Rome ; in recent years
7490-416: The main or only large temple in new Roman towns in the provinces. This was the case at Évora , Vienne and Nîmes , which were all expanded by the Romans as coloniae from Celtic oppida soon after their conquest. Imperial temples paid for by the government usually used conventional Roman styles all over the empire, regardless of the local styles seen in smaller temples. In newly planned Roman cities
7597-542: The mineral quartz, and gold out of the fluids and onto nearby surfaces. The world's oceans contain gold. Measured concentrations of gold in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific are 50–150 femtomol /L or 10–30 parts per quadrillion (about 10–30 g/km ). In general, gold concentrations for south Atlantic and central Pacific samples are the same (~50 femtomol/L) but less certain. Mediterranean deep waters contain slightly higher concentrations of gold (100–150 femtomol/L), which
7704-411: The noble metals, it still forms many diverse compounds. The oxidation state of gold in its compounds ranges from −1 to +5, but Au(I) and Au(III) dominate its chemistry. Au(I), referred to as the aurous ion, is the most common oxidation state with soft ligands such as thioethers , thiolates , and organophosphines . Au(I) compounds are typically linear. A good example is Au(CN) − 2 , which
7811-477: The offerings floated, then they had been rejected and gave a bad omen to Palmyra and the surrounding lands. Eusebius records that the Emperor Constantine destroyed a temple of Venus 'on the summit of Mount Lebanon.' and probably it was this pagan temple dedicated to Venus. During the 1970s Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur lived in Yammoune whilst receiving military training at a Fatah camp. He later held
7918-498: The other, became extremely common for Catholic churches, often with the uppermost one supported by huge volutes to each side. This can be seen developing in the Gesù, Rome (1584), Santa Susanna , Rome (1597), Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi (1646) and Val-de-Grâce , Paris (1645 on). The Palladian villas of the Veneto include numerous ingenious and influential variations on the theme of
8025-563: The plan of a gold mine in Nubia together with indications of the local geology . The primitive working methods are described by both Strabo and Diodorus Siculus , and included fire-setting . Large mines were also present across the Red Sea in what is now Saudi Arabia . Gold is mentioned in the Amarna letters numbered 19 and 26 from around the 14th century BC. Gold is mentioned frequently in
8132-662: The population expected in its sacred architecture . This was especially the case in Egypt and the Near East , where different traditions of large stone temples were already millennia old. The Romano-Celtic temple was a simple style, usually with little use of stone, for small temples found in the Western Empire , and by far the most common type in Roman Britain , where they were usually square, with an ambulatory . It often lacked any of
8239-719: The porticos were walled in between the columns, and the original cella front and side walls largely removed to create a large single space in the interior. Rural areas in the Islamic world have some good remains, which had been left largely undisturbed. In Spain some remarkable discoveries (Vic, Cordoba, Barcelona) were made in the 19th century when old buildings being reconstructed or demolished were found to contain major remains encased in later buildings. In Rome, Pula, and elsewhere some walls incorporated in later buildings have always been evident. The squared-off blocks of temple walls have always been attractive for later builders to reuse, while
8346-459: The project. The earliest recorded metal employed by humans appears to be gold, which can be found free or " native ". Small amounts of natural gold have been found in Spanish caves used during the late Paleolithic period, c. 40,000 BC . The oldest gold artifacts in the world are from Bulgaria and are dating back to the 5th millennium BC (4,600 BC to 4,200 BC), such as those found in
8453-681: The r-process in the collision of neutron stars . In both cases, satellite spectrometers at first only indirectly detected the resulting gold. However, in August 2017, the spectroscopic signatures of heavy elements, including gold, were observed by electromagnetic observatories in the GW170817 neutron star merger event, after gravitational wave detectors confirmed the event as a neutron star merger. Current astrophysical models suggest that this single neutron star merger event generated between 3 and 13 Earth masses of gold. This amount, along with estimations of
8560-620: The rare bismuthide maldonite ( Au 2 Bi ) and antimonide aurostibite ( AuSb 2 ). Gold also occurs in rare alloys with copper , lead , and mercury : the minerals auricupride ( Cu 3 Au ), novodneprite ( AuPb 3 ) and weishanite ( (Au,Ag) 3 Hg 2 ). A 2004 research paper suggests that microbes can sometimes play an important role in forming gold deposits, transporting and precipitating gold to form grains and nuggets that collect in alluvial deposits. A 2013 study has claimed water in faults vaporizes during an earthquake, depositing gold. When an earthquake strikes, it moves along
8667-420: The rate of occurrence of these neutron star merger events, suggests that such mergers may produce enough gold to account for most of the abundance of this element in the universe. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed , almost all of the gold present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core . Therefore, as hypothesized in one model, most of the gold in the Earth's crust and mantle
8774-935: The reaction. However, the ions are removed from the equilibrium by hydrochloric acid, forming AuCl − 4 ions, or chloroauric acid , thereby enabling further oxidation: 2 Au + 6 H 2 SeO 4 → 200 ∘ C Au 2 ( SeO 4 ) 3 + 3 H 2 SeO 3 + 3 H 2 O {\displaystyle {\ce {2Au{}+6H2SeO4->[{} \atop {200^{\circ }{\text{C}}}]Au2(SeO4)3{}+3H2SeO3{}+3H2O}}} Au + 4 HCl + HNO 3 ⟶ HAuCl 4 + NO ↑ + 2 H 2 O {\displaystyle {\ce {Au{}+4HCl{}+HNO3->HAuCl4{}+NO\uparrow +2H2O}}} Gold
8881-550: The region of the Beqaa Valley around Baalbek. Marvin H. Pope (Yale University) identified the home of El in the Ugaritic texts of ca. 1200 BCE, described as "at the source[s] of the [two] rivers, in the midst of the fountains of the [two] deeps", with this famous lake and Afqa , source of the river Adonis on the other side of the mountain, which Pope asserted was closely associated with it in legend. The area has been classed as
8988-482: The relatively few near-complete examples were nearly all converted into Christian churches (and sometimes subsequently to mosques ), usually a considerable time after the initial triumph of Christianity under Constantine . The decline of Roman religion was relatively slow, and the temples themselves were not appropriated by the government until a decree of the Emperor Honorius in 415. Santi Cosma e Damiano , in
9095-464: The rest of the gold on Earth is thought to have been incorporated into the planet since its very beginning, as planetesimals formed the mantle . In 2017, an international group of scientists established that gold "came to the Earth's surface from the deepest regions of our planet", the mantle, as evidenced by their findings at Deseado Massif in the Argentinian Patagonia . On Earth, gold
9202-474: The same result and showing that the isotopes of gold produced by it were all radioactive . In 1980, Glenn Seaborg transmuted several thousand atoms of bismuth into gold at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Gold can be manufactured in a nuclear reactor, but doing so is highly impractical and would cost far more than the value of the gold that is produced. Although gold is the most noble of
9309-420: The significant quantities of large sculpture that originally decorated temples. Gold Gold is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Au (from Latin aurum ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a bright , slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable , and ductile metal . Chemically, gold is a transition metal , a group 11 element , and one of the noble metals . It
9416-486: The silver content. The more silver, the lower the specific gravity . Native gold occurs as very small to microscopic particles embedded in rock, often together with quartz or sulfide minerals such as " fool's gold ", which is a pyrite . These are called lode deposits. The metal in a native state is also found in the form of free flakes, grains or larger nuggets that have been eroded from rocks and end up in alluvial deposits called placer deposits . Such free gold
9523-446: The south-east corner of the Black Sea is said to date from the time of Midas , and this gold was important in the establishment of what is probably the world's earliest coinage in Lydia around 610 BC. The legend of the golden fleece dating from eighth century BCE may refer to the use of fleeces to trap gold dust from placer deposits in the ancient world. From the 6th or 5th century BC,
9630-410: The specific association with religion that it had for the Romans. Generally, later adaptions lack the colour of the original, and though there may be sculpture filling the pediment in grand examples, the full Roman complement of sculpture above the roofline is rarely emulated. Variations on the theme, mostly Italian in origin, include: San Andrea, Mantua , 1462 by Leon Battista Alberti , which took
9737-522: The temple front has become fashionable in China. Renaissance and later architects worked out ways of harmoniously adding high raised domes, towers and spires above a colonnaded temple portico front, something the Romans would have found odd. The Roman temple front remains a familiar feature of subsequent Early Modern architecture in the Western tradition, but although very commonly used for churches, it has lost
9844-476: The temple typically carried an inscription saying who had built it, cut into the stone with a "V" section. This was filled with brightly coloured paint, usually scarlet or vermilion . In major imperial monuments the letters were cast in lead and held in by pegs, then also painted or gilded . These have usually long vanished, but archaeologists can generally reconstruct them from the peg-holes, and some have been re-created and set in place. Sculptural decoration
9951-480: The temple was normally centrally placed at one end of the forum, often facing the basilica at the other. In the city of Rome, a caesareum was located within the religious precinct of the Arval Brothers . In 1570, it was documented as still containing nine statues of Roman emperors in architectural niches. Most of the earlier emperors had their own very large temples in Rome, but a faltering economy meant that
10058-516: The temple, which could be viewed and approached from all directions, the side and rear walls of Roman temples might be largely undecorated (as in the Pantheon, Rome and Vic ), inaccessible by steps (as in the Maison Carrée and Vic), and even back on to other buildings. As in the Maison Carrée, columns at the side might be half columns , emerging from ("engaged with" in architectural terminology)
10165-436: The tendency of gold ions to interact at distances that are too long to be a conventional Au–Au bond but shorter than van der Waals bonding . The interaction is estimated to be comparable in strength to that of a hydrogen bond . Well-defined cluster compounds are numerous. In some cases, gold has a fractional oxidation state. A representative example is the octahedral species {Au( P(C 6 H 5 ) 3 )} 2+ 6 . Gold
10272-403: The transmutation of the chemical elements did not become possible until the understanding of nuclear physics in the 20th century. The first synthesis of gold was conducted by Japanese physicist Hantaro Nagaoka , who synthesized gold from mercury in 1924 by neutron bombardment. An American team, working without knowledge of Nagaoka's prior study, conducted the same experiment in 1941, achieving
10379-417: The visors of heat-resistant suits and in sun visors for spacesuits . Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity . Gold has a density of 19.3 g/cm , almost identical to that of tungsten at 19.25 g/cm ; as such, tungsten has been used in the counterfeiting of gold bars , such as by plating a tungsten bar with gold. By comparison, the density of lead is 11.34 g/cm , and that of
10486-453: The wall. The platform on which the temple sat was typically raised higher in Etruscan and Roman examples than Greek, with up to ten, twelve or more steps rather than the three typical in Greek temples; the Temple of Claudius was raised twenty steps. These steps were normally only at the front, and typically not the whole width of that. It might or might not be possible to walk around the temple exterior inside ( Temple of Hadrian ) or outside
10593-571: The word templum to refer to the sacred precinct, and not to the building. The more common Latin words for a temple or shrine were sacellum (a small shrine or chapel), aedes , delubrum , and fanum (in this article, the English word "temple" refers to any of these buildings, and the Latin templum to the sacred precinct). The form of the Roman temple was mainly derived from the Etruscan model, but in
10700-471: Was a major part of ancient Roman religion , and all towns of any importance had at least one main temple, as well as smaller shrines. The main room ( cella ) housed the cult image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated , and often a table for supplementary offerings or libations and a small altar for incense. Behind the cella was a room, or rooms, used by temple attendants for storage of equipment and offerings. The ordinary worshiper rarely entered
10807-783: Was abandoned for a fiat currency system after the Nixon shock measures of 1971. In 2020, the world's largest gold producer was China, followed by Russia and Australia. As of 2020 , a total of around 201,296 tonnes of gold exist above ground. This is equal to a cube, with each side measuring roughly 21.7 meters (71 ft). The world's consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments , and 10% in industry . Gold's high malleability, ductility, resistance to corrosion and most other chemical reactions, as well as conductivity of electricity have led to its continued use in corrosion-resistant electrical connectors in all types of computerized devices (its chief industrial use). Gold
10914-430: Was constructed of large stones and an Ancient Greek inscription was found inside. He considered it an ancient guardhouse or watchtower for protection of travellers. He suggested that oracles were consulted at the temple in connection with Queen Zenobia , who legend tells, sent offerings to the goddess by placing them on the lake. If the offerings sunk to the floor of the lake, then the goddess had accepted them. If
11021-421: Was filled with statuary in the most grand examples; this was as often in terracotta as stone, and no examples have survived except as fragments. Especially in the earlier periods, further statuary might be placed on the roof, and the entablature decorated with antefixes and other elements, all of this being brightly painted. However, unlike the Greek models, which generally gave equal treatment to all sides of
11128-481: Was made from a single capital from the temple. The Etruscan-Roman adaptation of the Greek temple model to place the main emphasis on the front façade and let the other sides of the building harmonize with it only as much as circumstances and budget allow has generally been adopted in Neoclassical architecture , and other classically derived styles. In these temple fronts with columns and a pediment are very common for
11235-497: Was significant and long-lasting. The same may have been true for the later rebuildings, though here the influence is harder to trace. For the first temple Etruscan specialists were brought in for various aspects of the building, including making and painting the extensive terracotta elements of the entablature or upper parts, such as antefixes . But for the second building they were summoned from Greece. Rebuildings after destruction by fire were completed in 69 BC, 75 AD, and in
11342-467: Was similar to that of Greek temples, often with pedimental sculpture with figures, of which only few fragments survive. However, exterior friezes with figures in relief were much less common. Many acroteria , antefixes and other elements were brightly coloured. In the early Empire older Greek statues were apparently sometimes re-used as acroteria. There was considerable local variation in style, as Roman architects often tried to incorporate elements
11449-605: Was to distort the Witwatersrand basin in such a way that the gold-bearing rocks were brought to the present erosion surface in Johannesburg , on the Witwatersrand , just inside the rim of the original 300 km (190 mi) diameter crater caused by the meteor strike. The discovery of the deposit in 1886 launched the Witwatersrand Gold Rush . Some 22% of all the gold that is ascertained to exist today on Earth has been extracted from these Witwatersrand rocks. Much of
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