Architecture Posters, pg 1/2
for art, art history and social studies classrooms and home schoolers.

Elements of Architecture
• Columns,
• Pediments,
• Temples,
• Roofs,
• Arches,
• Windows.

Art Bookshelf

Five Orders of Architecture
Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, Composite

The architect Claude Perrault (1613-1688) is responsible for the eastern range of the Louvre in Paris. He was also a physician, anatomist, and wrote on physics and natural history (philosophy), and the brother of Charles Perrault, the compilier and reteller of folktales such as Cinderella.

The Tower of Babel may have been a Mesopotanian ziggurat, a flat topped stepped tower built by the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians.

Genesis 11:1-9 (KJV):
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children built. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

• Judaism posters
• more M. C. Escher posters

The three largest pyramids from left to right are the pyramid of Menkaura with its subsidiary pyramids, the pyramid of Khafre, and the Great Pyramid of Khufa is the largest, which covers 13 acres and had an original height of 481 feet.
• UNESCO World Heritage Site

• Egypt posters
• more pyramids posters

The Great Wall of China is the longest man-made structure on Earth, stretching from Shanhai Pass in the east to Lop Nur in the west (over 3,948 miles). The Wall, a series of stone and earthen fortifications, was built, rebuilt, and maintained between 5th century BC and the 16th century, to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire. • UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• China posters

Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in England and one of the most famous prehistoric sites, is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones. Archaeologists believe Stoneshenge was built in four stages beginning sometime around 3,100 B.C. One apparent function of Stonehenge was to mark the equinox of the Sun.

A “henge” is a nearly circular or oval-shaped area “enclosed and delimited by a boundary earthwork that (is) usually comprised by a ditch with an external bank” considered to serve a ritual purpose. Avebury, in Wiltshire, is a Neolithic monument older than Stonehenge.

The ruins of Angkor, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are located amid forests and farmland near modern day Siem Reap (13°24'N, 103°51'E) in Cambodia. The ruins were never 'lost'; the French explorer Henri Mouhot visited them in the mid 1800s and his posthumously published essays popularized the ruins to the Western world.

• Angkor: Cambodia's Wondrous Khmer Temples, Fifth Edition

Igloo, "snowhouse" in Inuit, is a dome shaped shelter constructed from blocks of snow. The igloo dome is raised out of independent blocks leaning on each other and polished to fit without an additional supporting structure during construction. In the traditional Inuit igloo the heat from a stone lamp will cause the interior to melt slightly; melting and refreezing will build up an ice sheet and contributed to the strength of the igloo. [National Film Board of Canada, How to Build an Igloo]

• Native American posters
• Canada posters
• Commander Robert Peary's Igloo, print

Inca Ruins at Machu Picchu

UNESCO World Heritage Site

• Peru posters
• Native American posters

Athena's most famous temple is the Parthenon, located on the Acropolis of Athens. Built in the 5th century BC, the Parthenon is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece. The Acropolis of Athens, a high flat topped rock, has evidence of of habitation there since the Early Neolithic period (6th millennium BC). It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

FYI - Someone who is agoraphobic is afraid of public places and crowds (agora=market+phobia=fear).

Epidaurus was the birthplace of Apollo's son Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing. The theatre at Epidaurus was built from the proceeds of the many people who visited seeking a cure for their illness.

• Asclepius (L. Aesculapius) & Hippocrates

The Roman Pantheon (pan = all + theon = gods) dates from about 125 AD, a part of the rebuilding of Rome by the Emperor Hadrian. The round opening at the top of the poured concrete coffered dome is called an oculus (Latin = eye), and is the only source of light in the Pantheon. The original Pantheon was built by Marcus Agrippa; Apollodorus of Damascus is usually credited as the architect/engineer of the current structure, based on the original design.

Trajan's Square Rome, from "Entwurf Einer Historischen Architektur"

The Trajan Column, completed in 113, is a freestanding column famous for its spiral bas relief commemorating Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. There is speculation that the column served as a measuring stick for the construction of the surrounding forum.

Reims Cathedral

Villard de Honnecourt traveled throughout 13th century France cathedral building sites making drawings and detailed descriptions of sculpture, and architectural plans, elevations and details, ecclesiastical objects and mechanical devices.

• more Middle Ages

Side Domes and Added Minarets Gather About the Great Vault of Hagia Sophia or Ayasofya and the Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmed I, Istanbul, Turkey
(Isadore of Miletus & Anthemius of Trailes, architects)

• Middle East
• more architecture posters