Greek architecture is known for tall columns, intricate detail, symmetry, harmony, and balance. The Greeks built all sorts of buildings. The main examples of Greek architecture that survive today are the large temples that they built to their gods.

Architects used sophisticated geometry and optical tricks to present buildings as perfectly straight and harmonious. The ancient Greeks are rightly famous for their magnificent Doric and Ionic temples, and the example par excellence is undoubtedly the Parthenon of Athens.

Ancient Greek temples featured proportional design, columns, friezes, and pediments, usually decorated with sculpture in relief. These elements give ancient Greek architecture its distinctive character. Scholars of ancient Greek architecture generally refer to three Orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

Perhaps the fullest, and most famous, expression of Classical Greek temple architecture is the Periclean Parthenon of Athens—a Doric order structure, the Parthenon represents the maturity of the Greek classical form.

Doric order

The orders describe the form and decoration of Greek and later Roman columns, and continue to be widely used in architecture today. The Doric order is the simplest and shortest, with no decorative foot, vertical fluting, and a flared capital.

The third and most decorative of the Classical Orders is the Corinthian. Using capitals adorned with flowers and leaves below a scroll, Corinthian columns are highly elaborate. Like the Ionic, Corinthian columns use entasis to make the shafts appear straighter than they are.

Answer Expert Verified It was the last one developed. The other two are Doric and Ionic. It is known as being the most ornate of the orders. It has slim columns that were fluted and were decorated with scrolls and leaves.

Corinthian columns are the most ornate, slender and sleek of the three Greek orders. They are distinguished by a decorative, bell-shaped capital with volutes, two rows of acanthus leaves and an elaborate cornice. In many instances, the column is fluted.

The Corinthian order (Greek Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin Ordo Corinthius) is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. This architectural style is characterized by slender fluted columns and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls.

This Order has always been related to Beauty. Taken as a whole, it was developed by the Romans into an expression of the grandest architectural show. Vitruvius described the Corinthian column as an imitation of the slenderness of a maiden.

1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of Corinth or Corinthians. 2 : of or relating to the lightest and most ornate of the three ancient Greek architectural orders distinguished especially by its large capitals decorated with carved acanthus leaves — see order illustration.

425 BC

Corinthian order, one of the classical orders of architecture. Its main characteristic is an ornate capital carved with stylized acanthus leaves.

The City of Athens. Athens is one of the great cities of the world. During the time of the Ancient Greeks it was the center of power, art, science, and philosophy in the world.

Vitruvius established five standard measurements for intercolumniation: 11/2 diameter interval (D), called pycnostyle intercolumniation; 2D, called systyle; 21/4D (the most common ratio), called eustyle; 3D, called diastyle; and 4 or more D, called araeostyle.

There are five major orders: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite.

Capital, in architecture, crowning member of a column, pier, anta, pilaster, or other columnar form, providing a structural support for the horizontal member (entablature) or arch above. In the Classical styles, the capital is the architectural member that most readily distinguishes the order.

Entablature, in architecture, assemblage of horizontal moldings and bands supported by and located immediately above the columns of Classical buildings or similar structural supports in non-Classical buildings.

Entablature and pediment The columns of a temple support a structure that rises in two main stages, the entablature and the pediment. The entablature is the major horizontal structural element supporting the roof and encircling the entire building. It is composed of three parts.

The most popular types of pilaster shaft are fluted and paneled.

is that entablature is (architecture) all that part of a classical temple above the capitals of the columns; includes the architrave, frieze, and cornice but not the roof while frieze is (architecture) that part of the entablature of an order which is between the architrave and cornice it is a flat member or face.

: a horizontal part in classical architecture that rests on the columns and consists of architrave, frieze, and cornice.