The giant pyramids of Egypt were not tombs in the strict sense of the word. Rather, their builders saw them more as houses for living in after death. Over eighty of these eternal stone houses still exist in the flat landscape of the Nile valley, and they continue to fascinate us. For many years now they have also been assured a place in the vocabulary of architectural forms. 
The first pyramids, huge limestone-clad buildings along the banks of the Nile, appeared in the third century B.C. The tradition of pyramid building began under the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom. The monumental stone structures, which can be seen for miles across the flat landscape, were by no means alone: they were part of extensive burial grounds, which were constructed for life after death.
In the third century B.C. an entire city of the dead grew up in Giza on the west bank of the Nile not far from Cairo. Several pyramids of differing heights and hundreds of tombs of high officials spread out across an area of more than one square kilometer. King Cheops created his cemetery on a rocky plateau: at 146 meters his pyramid was the highest ever built and also the largest built structure in the ancient world. In twenty years, from 2554 to 2531 B.C., thousands of workers piled up around 2.5 million blocks of stone to form 210 layers of stone. If we include bearers and slaves, around twenty to twenty-five thousand people were involved in the building of the Pyramid of Cheops, one percent of the entire population of Egypt at that time.
Approximately five thousand stonemasons brought the necessary blocks of rock and limestone from the quarries. The mountains of material, not to mention the large numbers of workers involved, provide impressive information on how the pyramids were built. Behind this, and no less impressive, was a highly developed architectural technology and excellent mathematical knowledge: the start of pyramid building was accompanied by a massive step forward in building technology. While earlier tombs in Egypt had been constructed out of clay bricks, with the pyramids stone was used as a basic building material for the first time. The transport of the huge stone blocks was in itself a major achievement, while the construction of the pyramids was only made possible at all through the development of metal tools. Last but not least, Egyptian architects were also in a position to calculate spatial volumes and right angles or other similar problems accurately. The smooth surfaces of the sides of the pyramid emerge from the square base as triangles, which meet at the top: despite the impressive length of the edges (in the Pyramid of Cheops they measure 230 meters) the sides differ by just a few centimeters.
Cheops' tomb, the largest of the Egyptian pyramids, displays the classic elements of pyramid construction: an east-facing valley temple, which was connected to the mortuary temple at the foot of the pyramid by an ascending passage. A lower passage led from the north entrance diagonally into the heart of the building, culminating in a great hall. So-called "portcullis slabs", suspended on ropes, protected the burial chamber beyond housing the stone sarcophagus in which the embalmed body of the deceased lay. Massive stone blocks were transported deep into the pyramid's burial chamber. According to Egyptian beliefs, this chamber was to be the deceased person's home for all eternity, and so he was to be provided for accordingly. Shafts were created to allow the circulation of fresh air; burial gifts were to equip him for his long existence in the afterlife; and fresh food was left for him in the mortuary temple at the foot of the pyramid. In some pyramid constructions there was even a stone sphinx standing guard over the valley temple.
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Even when the era of Egyptian pyramid building was long past, this building type persisted, and pyramids have featured in the history of Western architecture ever since. The reference to Egypt was of course more obvious in the case of obelisks: these stone pillars were being brought back and erected in Rome even in Antiquity. But already the Ancients were also examining the pyramid as a building type. Cheops' creation was known to the Romans when Egypt was incorporated into the empire in 30 B.C. at the latest. The Romans used the pyramid form for many of their funerary monuments. One of them, the Pyramid of Cestius in Rome is still standing today.
The Pyramid of Cestius only reached a quarter of the height of the first Egyptian pyramid, the Pyramid of Cheops. Since then there have been few epochs that boasted no pyramids at all: although knowledge of Egyptian culture was generally lost during the Middle Ages in Europe, it was rediscovered alongside many other cultures during the Renaissance. The Renaissance popes built Egyptian obelisks in Rome, a clear indication of the growing interest in Egypt. During the Baroque period elements from Egyptian architecture influenced European garden design: pyramids and obelisks appeared in aristocratic gardens and later emerged in English landscape gardens. Scientific interest in Egypt grew during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as hieroglyphics were deciphered and expeditions set off for the land of the Nile. And in the twentieth century, too, the pyramid form found its advocates: the Chinese-born American architect Ieoh Ming Pei (1917-), who was commissioned to extend the exhibition spaces of the Louvre, created its new entrance in the form of a glass pyramid. Pei too modelled his creation on the proportions of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Notes:
Old Kingdom - (3- ..), IIIVI . ; , - .
Pharaoh /ˈfeɪ.roʊ/-
Diodorus - DiodorusSiculus/ˌdaɪəˈdɔːrəsˈsɪkjʊləs/ 1 . ..; .
PyramidofCestius - ́ ́ , -.
pope
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IeohMingPei ́ (1917 -) , . . .
TEXT II. AGREEK INVENTION:
THE CLASSICAL ORDERS
For many centuries in Ancient Greece temples were the most important form of architecture. They were, after all, houses built for the gods. Gradually the temple form of a square central space surrounded by columns came to predominate. Even the most famous Greek temple, the Parthenon on the Acropolis, follows this model. 
When the Parthenon was built in the fifth century B.C., Athens was the political and economic center of Greece and this temple, dedicated to the goddess protector of the city, Athena, took on a suitably monumental form. We can only imagine today how the Temple of Athena was richly decorated with architectural sculpture, and how sculptures and relief friezes adorned its facades. The cult image, a huge statue of Athena, was located in the central space, the cella. The roof of the temple -was supported by a whole row of columns, and the entire temple was made of white marble. Eight stone columns adorned the west-facing front of the structure, with seventeen pillars on each of the long sides. On these massive columns lay horizontal beams and, in turn, on top of these was the temple's pediment. A central aim of the architect was to create a harmonious relationship between the vertical lines of the columns and the horizontal lines of the entablature above.
As in the Parthenon, columns in Greek architecture were used as supports for a horizontal entablature. They were also used not only as an architectural element, a use that refers back ultimately to the tree-trunk that was used as a support, but they were also used for their own qualities, to lend order to architecture. To do this the Greeks developed three different types of column that can be distinguished by their three sections: the base, the shaft, and most clearly by the capital that finishes the column at the top. Another element was the beams that were placed horizontally on top of the columns and that led to the pediment. The appearance of these architectural elements and what their relative proportions should be determined the classical orders as they developed in Ancient Greece. With the establishment of these three architectural forms the Greeks created an architectural principle that architects followed until well into the nineteenth century. The plainest of the three orders is the Doric, named for the Ancient Greek tribe, the Dorians. This order was used in the building of the Parthenon. Its powerful columns have no base of their own, but stand directly on the floor of the temple. The shaft of the column tapers towards the top and is articulated with vertical grooves, called fluting. At the top the shaft bulges out to be finished off with a covering slab, the abacus. Above the abacus are decorated lintels, and finally the pediment. The Ionic order originated in Asia Minor. Here the column has its own base, above which a series of bulges and grooves lead to a similarly fluted shaft. The top end of the column, the capital, is rolled up on both sides into the shape of snail-shells. These volutes give the Ionic column its characteristic of ostentation. The Ionic entablature is more lightly and delicately decorated than the Doric. The last of the three classical orders is the Corinthian. The base, shaft, and also the entablature are similar to the Ionic order, except that the capital is an individual development: it grows out of a garland of leaves that then turn into volutes. This Corinthian variant of the capital, adorned with leaves and buds, re-appeared in Gothic architecture. Before that, however, the columns of the Corinthian order were adopted by Ancient Rome in particular. 
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The Romans adopted the classical orders as defined by the Greek architects. In the first century B.C. the Roman author Vitruvius set out their principles in writing in his ten-volume architectural work, De architectura. Here he describes Greek temples and establishes the proportions that relate column to entablature in each case. Roman temples demonstrate how the architects of Ancient Rome appropriated the Greek formal language. Unlike Greek architecture, however, the columns built by Roman architects supported arches, not horizontal beams. The Colosseum, which was begun in 72 A.D., shows how the ancient classical orders persisted into the Roman period: from the outside the stories of the amphitheater are not only horizontal, but articulated in axes. 
Arches supported by columns extend around the facade of the building. The three lower stories are built following the traditions of the classical orders most closely. On the ground floor plain Doric capitals top off the shafts of the columns, while, above them, Ionic capitals are used, characterized by their rolled-up corners. On the third story Corinthian capitals created using plant forms are employed. While developments in the different orders took place even during the Greek period, it was, however, the Romans who were the first to create hybrid forms. They combined the Ionic with the Corinthian variations and thus added another form to the scheme: the Composite order. In the same way, it is only in Roman architecture that we find examples of the Tuscan order: here the shaft of the column is usually left smooth, but in all other respects the column is similar to the Doric variation.
With the rediscovery of the cultural riches of Antiquity during the Renaissance, the classical orders too reappeared. Still extant buildings from the Roman period, such as the Colosseum, for example, made the study of the orders possible. At the same time Renaissance architects started to look once again at the writings of Vitruvius. Architectural theorists were the first to pay them any attention. Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72), the embodiment of the Renaissance idea of the universal man not only as a theo-retician but also as an architect, sculptor and poet, drew extensively on the architecture of Antiquity. Alberti studied the buildings of Rome and Vitruvius's treatise on architecture, bringing the ideas of art into Antiquity to his own era. In his 1452 work, De re aedificatoria [On the Art of Building in Ten Books] he produced his own definition of the three classical orders, which led to a great deal of interest. The architect Donate Bramante (1444-1514) was the first to try to realize his ideas. The Tempietto ofS. Pietro in Montorio, Rome, which Bramante built in 1500 boasted a thorough-going Doric order.
The round temple is enclosed by a peristyle supporting a balustrade, and the center of the building is surmounted by a dome. In building this little temple Bramante drew on models from Antiquity, thus promoting a concept of architecture which had enormous influence on his contemporaries both within the architectural world and beyond. Bramante himself included the three orders in his numerous sketches for churches in Rome, not the least of which was the interior of St. Peter's Basilica, for which he chose the Corinthian order. This reversion to Antiquity became the accepted thing, and in the sixteenth century whole hosts of architects applied the classical orders to churches, villas, and palaces. Even the villa architect of the sixteenth century, Andrea Palladio (1508-80), frequently referred back to the classical orders in his buildings. Palladio created the entrance to his Villa Rotonda, which he built near Vicenza in 1566, as a temple frontage from Antiquity with six Ionic columns and a triangular pediment. 
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In the second of his Four Books of Architecture Palladio explained his use of this element: "In all the buildings for farms and also for some of those in the city I have built a tympanum [frontespicio] on the front facade..., because tympanums accentuate the entrance of the house and contribute greatly to the grandeur and magnificence of the building, thus making the front part more imposing than the others.
Up until the era of Classicism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the classical orders set the tone of the architectural canon in Europe. The Greek orders appeared once more in the context of city architecture with the Brandenburg Gate. 
Berlin's last city gate, which has latterly become a symbol of German reunification, was created by Carl Gotthard Langhans (1732-1808) in the late eighteenth century. The architect made no secret of his passion for Greece, and in his sketch for the Brandenburg Gate he made reference to the design of the Propylaeum in Athens, the monumental gate on the Acropolis. In the Berlin version six Doric columns support the entablature, as well as the quadriga-Victoria, Roman goddess of victory, in her chariot pulled by four horses. In France too, classical architecture, and with it the classical orders, were very popular. In Paris, for example, Napoleon undertook to complete the unfinished Church of the Madeleine.
Now the building was conceived no longer as a church, but as a monument to the French army. Thus the temple form was chosen, which architect Pierre-Alexandre Vignon (1763-1828) carried out beginning in 1807. By the time the project was finished in 1842 the building had been returned to its original purpose, and the Church of the Madeleine became Napoleon's most important contribution to sacred architecture. The exterior is like a temple frontage from Antiquity with a continuous peristyle running around the entire building formed of richly decorated columns in the Corinthian order.
Notes:
Peristyle -́ , , , , .
Vitruvius ́ ́ , - (I . ..).
Leon Battista Alberti ́ (1404 1472) , , , . ..
Donate Bramante (1444-1514) .
Andrea Palladio (1508 1580), (XVI .). . , .
Carl Gotthard Langhans (1732 1808) . , .
Pierre-Alexandre Vignon - (1763 -1828) , .
tomb [tu:m]n.-,
pyramid ['pIrqmId]n.-
giant['dZQIqnt]a.-,
eternal [I't´nl]a.-,
flat [flxt]a.- ,
landscape ['lxnskeIp]n.- ,
fascinate ['fxsIneIt]v. - ,
assure [q'S²], [q'Suq]v.- , ,
limestone- clad ['laImstqun'klxd]- ()
clothe ['klquD]v. (clothed[-d], clad [klxd])-
appear [q'pIq]v.- ,
cult [kAlt]n. , ,
whatever [wPt'evq]a.- , ; conj.- ,
lodging ['lPGIN]n.
dwelling ['dwelIN]n.- ,
by no means [baI"nqu'mnz] , ,
burial ['berIql]n.-
entire [In'taIq] a.- , ,
grow up ['grquAp] v.- ,
official [q'fISl] n.- , ,
spread out ["sprqd'aut]v.- , ,
area ['eqrIq]n.- , ,
cemetery ['semqtrI]n.-
plateau ['plxtqu] n.- ,
ancient ['eInSqnt]a.-,
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pile up ["paIl'Ap] v.- , ,
layer ['leIq]n.- 1., ,2.,
include [In'kl³d]v.- , ,
bearer ['beqrq]n., ;
involve [In'vPlv]n.- , ,
approximately [q'prPksImqtlI]adv.-
stonemason ['stqun"meIsn]n.
quarr ['kwPrI] n.
provide [prq'vaId]v.- , ,
knowledge ['nPlIG] n.- , ,
clay [kleI]n.-
brick [brIk]n.-
sheer [SIq]a.- , ,
mountain['mauntIn] n.- , ,
accompany [q'kAmpqnI]v.- ,
achievement [q'Cvmqnt] n.- ,
tool [t³l]n.- , ,
(bein) position [pq'zISn]n.- ,
make possible ["meIk'pPsqbl] v.- ,
spatial['speISl] a.
accurate ['xkjurIt]a.- , ,
angle ['xNgl]n.-
smooth [sm³D]a.- , , ,
surface ['s´fIs] n.- ,
emerge [I'm´G]v.-,
base[beIs]n.- , ,
triangle ['traIxNgl]n.-
despite [dIs'paIt]prep.- ,
edge [eG]n.- ,
differ ['dIfq] v.- , ,
centimeter ['sentI"mtq] n.-
display [dIs'pleI] v.- , , ,
east-facing ['st'feIsIN]
valley ['vxlI] n.-
temple [templ] n.-
foot [fut]n.- , ,
mortuary ['m²tjuqrI] a.
ascend [q'send] v. ,
suspend [sq'spend]v.- , ,
house [hauz]v.-
rope [rqup] n.- ,
chamber ['Ceimbq]n.- ,
lead[ld]v.- ,
culminate ['kAlmIneIt] v.- ( )
beyond [bI'jPnd] prep.- , , , , , ,
portcullis [p²t'kAlIs] n.-
slab [slxb] n.-
sarcophagus [s'kPfqgqs] n.-
embalm [Im'bm]v.-
deceased [dI'sst]a.- ,
eternity [I't´nItI]n.- ,
belief [bI'lf]n.- ,
existence [Ig'zIstqns]n.- ,
persist [pq'sIst]v.- ,
reference ['refrqns]n.
obelisk ['PbqlIsk]n.-
incorporate [In'k²pqreIt]v.- , , ,
epoch ['pPk]n.- , ,
era ['Iqrq]n.- ,
feature ['fJCq] v.- ,
bringback ["brIN'bxk] v.- ,
examine [Ig'zxmIn] v.- ,
pillar ['pIlq] n.- , , ,
erec t[I'rekt]v.‑,
funerary ['fj³nqrqrI]a.- ,
boast [boust] v. , ,
although [Ll'Dqu] cj.- , ,
renaissance [rq'neIsns] n.-
pope [pqup] n.-
hieroglyphic ["haIrq'glIfIk] a.-
decipher [dI'saIfq]v. ,
set off ["set'Pf] v.-
commission [kq'mISn]v.- ,
create [krI'eIt] v.- , , ()
influence ['Influqns] v.- ,
extend [Ik'stend]v.- , , ,
exhibition ["eksI'bISn]n.-, ,
model ['mPdl] v.- ,
proportion [prq'p²Sn]v.- , ,pl.
just [GAst] adv.- , , , , , , ,
Architecture ['kItekCq]n.- ,
gradually ['grxGuqlI]adv.- ,
predominate ["prI'dPmIneIt]v.- ,
follow ['fPlqu] v.- , , ,
dedicate ['dedIkeIt]v.- ,
take on ['teIkPn]v.-
suitably ['s(j)³tqblI]adv.-
relief [rI'lf]n.-
frieze [frz]n.- ,
adorn [q'd²n]v.-
front [frAnt]n.- ,
façade [fq'sd]n.- ,
set out ['set"aut]v.- , ,
marble ['mbl]n.-
horizontal ["hPrI'zPntl] a.-
beam [bm] n.- , ,
pediment ['pedImqnt]n.-
aim [eIm] n.- ,
harmonious [h'mqunIqs]a.-
entablature [en'txblqCq]n.-
support [sq'p²t]n.- ,
refer back [rI'f´"bxk]v.-
ultimately ['AltImqtlI] adv.- ,
tree- trunk ["tr'trANk]-
quality ['kwPlqtI] n.- ,, ,
lend [lend]v.- . , ,
distinguish [dIs'tINgwIS] v.- , ,
base [beIs] n.- , ,
shaft [SRft]n.- , ,
clearly ['klIqlI] adv.- , ,
capital ['kxpItl]n.-
place [pleIs]v.- , ,
develop [dI'velqp]v.- , ,
plain [pleIn] a.- , ,
Dorian ['d²rIqn], Doric['dPrIk]a.- ; Doric Order-
Tribe [traIb] n.- , ,
taper ['teIpq]v.- ,
towards [tq'w²dz]prep.- , , ; , ;
articulate ['tIkjuleIt] v.- ,
groove [gr³v] n.- , ,
flute [fl³t]n.- , ; fluted['fl³tId] column-
bulge [bAlG]v.-, ,
bulge [bAlG]n.-,
abacus ['xbqkqs]n.- ,
lintel ['lIntl]n.-
order ['²dq]n.- , ; .-
originate [q'rIGqneIt] v.- , , ,
roll up ['rqul'Ap] v.- ,
lightly ['laItlI]adv.- , ,
delicately ['delIkqtlI]adv.- , , ,
Ionic [aI'OnIk]a.- ; Ionic Order-
Corinthian [kq'rInTIqn]a.- ; Corinthian Order-
grow out ["grqu'aut]v.- ,
garland ['glqnd]n.-
leaf [lf] n.- (pl. leaves)
turn (into) [t´n] v.-
volute [vq'l³t]n.- ,
bud [bAd]n.-
adopt [q'dPpt]v.- , ,
define [dI'faIn]v.- , ,
particular [pq'tIkjulq]n.- ; a.- , ;
in particular- ,
establish [I'stxblIS]v.- ,
establishment [I'stxblISmqnt]n.- ,
relate [rI'leIt]v.- ,
appropriate [q'prquprIeIt] v.- ,
support [sq'p²t]v.-
arch [RC]n.-
top off ['tPp"Pf]v.- , , ,
however [hau'evq]adv.- , , ; adv.- , ,
axis ['ǣksIs]n.-
hybrid ['haIbrId]n.-
scheme [skm]n.-, , , ,
Tuscan ['tAskqn]a.- ; Tuscan Order-
Composite ['kPmpqzIt]a.- , ; Composite Order-
development [dI'velqpmqnt]n.- , ,
extant [ek'stxnt]a.- ,
embodiment [Im'bPdImqnt]v.- , ,
treatise ['trtIz]n.- ,
definition ["defq'nISn] n.- , ,
deal [dJl]n.- ; great deal of-
thorough going ["TArq'gquIN] a.- , ,
enclose [In'klquz]v.-, , ,
peristyle ['perIstaIl]n.-
balustrade ["bxlq'streId] n.-
cella['selq]n.- ( )
surmount [sq'maunt]v.- ,
dome [dqum]n.- ,
promote [prq'mqut]v.- , ,
enormous [I'no:məs]a.- ,
contemporary [kqn'temprqrI]n.-
sketch [skeC]n.- ,
church[C´C]n.-
least[li:st]a.- , ; not the least- ; the last but not the least- ,
reversion [rI'v´Sn]n.-
accept [qk'sept]v.- , ,
host [hqust]n.- . ,
apply [q'plaI]v.- , ,
frequently ['frIkwqntlI]adv.- ,
frontag e['frAntIG]n.-
tympanum ['tImpqnqm]n.-
accentuate [xk'senCueIt] v.- ,
contribute [kqn'trIbj³t] v.- , ,
grandeur ['grxnGq]n.- , ,
magnificence [mxg'nIfIsqns]n.-
imposing [Im'pquzIN]a.- ,
canon ['kxnqn]n.- ,
gate [geIt]n.-
reunification ['rJ"jHnIfI'keISn] n.-
as [xz]adv.- , , ; cj.- , ,
latterly ['lxtqlI]adv.- , ,
passion ['pxSn]n.-
quadriga [kwP'drJgq]n.- ( , )
sacred ['seIkrId]a.- , ,
undertake ["Andq'teIk]v.- ,
complete [kqm'plt]v.- ,
conceive [kqn'sv]v.- ,
carryout ['kxrI'aut]v.- ,
exterior [Ik'stIqrIq]n.- ; ,
interior [In'tIqrIq]n.- , ,
