Geographical, Geological, &

Climatic Influences +
Examples of Tombs
Ancient Greek Architecture came from about 1050 BC
to 31 BC. Greek civilization encompassed not only
mainland Greece but also nearby islands in the Aegean
Sea, the western coast of Turkey (known as Ionia),
southern Italy and Sicily (known as Magna Graecia, or
Great Greece), and by the late 300s BC, Egypt, Syria,
and other Near Eastern lands. Among its best-known
monuments are stone temples, statues of human
figures, and painted vases.
The importance of Greek art and architecture for the
history of Western civilization can hardly be overstated,
for the Greeks established many of the most enduring
themes, attitudes, and forms of Western culture. The
stories told in Greek art and literature of gods and
heroes have been retold ever since and continue to
form a common ground for the art, literature, and even
popular culture of the Western world.
Greek artists were the first to establish mimesis
(imitation of nature) as a guiding principle for art, even
as Greek philosophers debated the intellectual value of
this approach. The repeated depiction of the nude
human figure in Greek art reflects Greek humanism
a belief that "Man is the measure of all things," in the
words of Greek philosopher Protagoras. Architecture is
another Greek legacy that the West has inherited, as
Greece established many of the structural elements,
decorative motifs, and building types still used in
architecture today.
Greece is surrounded on three sides by
the sea, and her many natural harbors
made it easy for those early traders, the
Phoenicians, to carry on extensive
commerce with the country.
Three seas surrounding Greece:
Ionian Sea
Sea of Crete
Aegean Sea


This sea influence also fostered national
activity and enterprise, just as it has done
in Great Britain; while the proximity of a
multitude of islands, colonized from the
mainland and keeping up communication
with it by sea, produced a race of hardy
and adventurous colonists.
Ancient Greece, however, extended
geographically far beyond the mainland
and adjacent islands, and thus ruins of
Greek buildings are found in the Dorian
colonies of Sicily and South Italy, and in
the Ionian colonies of Asia Minor.
The mainland and islands of Greece are
rocky, with deeply indented coastline,
and rugged mountain ranges with few
substantial forests.
The mountainous nature of the country
separated the inhabitants into groups or
clans, and was thus responsible for that
rivalry which characterized the old
Greek states, both in peace and war.
The rugged indented coastline at Rhamnous, Attica
The Islands of the Aegean from Cape Sounion
The Acropolis, Athens, is high above the city on a natural prominence.
The Theatre and Temple of Apollo in a mountainous area at Delphi
The chief mineral wealth of Greece was
in her unrivalled marble, the most
beautiful and monumental of all building
materials, and one which facilitates
exactness of line and refinement of
detail.
This marble is found in abundance,
notably in the mountains of Hymettus and
Pentelicus near Athens, and in the islands
of Paros and Naxos.
Mt. Pentelicus
Paros Island
The Greeks attached so much
importance to the quality of fine-grained
marble for producing exact outlines and
smooth surfaces that, as in the Temples at
Paestum, they even coated coarse-
grained limestone with a layer of marble
"stucco" in order to secure this effect,
which is the great characteristic of their
architecture.
Temples at Paestum
Temples at Paestum
The most freely available building
material is stone. Limestone was readily
available and easily worked. There is an
abundance of high quality white marble
both on the mainland and islands,
particularly Paros and Naxos. This finely
grained material was a major
contributing factor to precision of detail,
both architectural and sculptural, that
adorned Ancient Greek architecture.
Deposits of high quality potter's clay
were found throughout Greece and the
Islands, with major deposits near Athens.
It was used not only for pottery vessels,
but also roof tiles and architectural
decoration.
The climate was intermediate between
rigorous cold and relaxing heat; hence
the Greek character, combining the
energy of the north with the lethargy of
the south, produced a unique civilization.
The clear atmosphere, largely resulting
from the rocky nature of the country and
the absence of forests, was conducive to
the development of that love of precise
and exact forms which are special
attributes of Greek architecture.
The climate favored an outdoor life, and
consequently the administration of
justice, dramatic representations, and
most public ceremonies took place in the
open air, and this is largely due to the
limited variety of public buildings other
than temples.
The hot sun and sudden showers were
probably answerable for the porticoes
and colonnades which were such
important features.
Portico a covered walkway
Colonnade row of supporting columns
The climate of Greece is maritime, with both the
coldness of winter and the heat of summer
tempered by sea breezes. This led to a lifestyle
where many activities took place outdoors.
Hence temples were placed on hilltops, their
exteriors designed as a visual focus of
gatherings and processions, while theatres were
often an enhancement of a naturally occurring
sloping site where people could sit, rather than a
containing structure. Colonnades encircling
buildings, or surrounding courtyards provided
shelter from the sun and from sudden winter
storms.
The light of Greece may be another
important factor in the development of
the particular character of Ancient Greek
architecture. The light is often extremely
bright, with both the sky and the sea
vividly blue.
The clear light and sharp shadows give a
precision to the details of landscape, pale
rocky outcrops and seashore. This clarity
is alternated with periods of haze that
varies in color to the light on it.
In this characteristic environment, the
Ancient Greek architects constructed
buildings that were marked by precision
of detail. The gleaming marble surfaces
were smooth, curved, fluted, or ornately
sculpted to reflect the sun, cast graded
shadows and change in color with the
ever-changing light of day.
The principal forms of funerary
architecture were circular earthen
mounds covering built tombs,
rectangular earthen mounds with
masonry facades, and mausoleums (large
independent tombs typical of the Late
Classical and Hellenistic periods).
Lion Tomb at Cnidus, Caria

Lion Tomb at Cnidus, Caria
Of a totally different class is a tomb at Cnidus, in
Caria, discovered by Mr. C.T. Newton. It consists of a
square resting on four steps, and carrying four
engaged Doric columns, with a cornice over the
whole, being about 31 feet square on the basement.
Above the cornice are gradin, forming a sort of
pyramid of steps, having at the summit a lion, now in
the British Museum. "Inside was a beehive-shaped
chamber, with vaulting similar to that of the treasury
of Tares at Mycenae, and with eleven smaller cells
radiating from its circumference" (Newton). Its
supposed date is about 396 B.C.
Example: Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
One of the old Seven Wonders, the monumental
Tomb of Mausolus (353 BC) at Halicarnassus, is
located on the coast of Turkey. Built for King
Mausolus of Caria, it is from this building that we
get the word mausoleum. The architect of the
Tomb of Mausolus was Pytheos, who also
designed the Temple of Athena Polias at Priene.

Tomb at Mylasa, Caria

Tomb at Mylasa, Caria
More curious, though less elegant, is the tomb at
Mylasa, in Caria, which has a high, square
basement with a chamber in it. Over this, on
each faces, are two columns in antis, with
entablature, the space between the columns
being quite clear. Over the cornice are placed
great stone beams, anglicise; on these, others,
again, crosswise; so that the bearing is rapidly
diminished, and a rough sort of dome formed,
resembling those so often found in India.

Nereid Tomb


Nereid Tomb
The Nereid Tomb is named after the female
statues between the columns. They are the
daughters of the sea-god Nereus.
Friezes are sculpted bands decorated with
scenes of activity. The friezes on the Nereid
Tomb are located along the bottom of the tomb
and around the top. There is also one on the
inner section of the Tomb.
Nereid Tomb
Portrayed scenes of activity:
A City under Siege: the faint building outlines and
men climbing a ladder
A Battle: people fighting both on foot and on
horseback; many carry shields to protect themselves
A Hunting Scene: men on horses chasing animals; in
the left of this scene a bear is being attacked by a dog
Beehive Tombs in Mycenae
A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb
("domed tombs"), is a burial structure
characterized by its false dome created by the
superposition of successively smaller rings of
mud bricks or, more often, stones. The resulting
structure resembles a beehive, hence the
traditional English name.
Example: Treasury of Atreus
Treasury of Atreus


Treasury of Atreus
The Treasury of Atreus or Tomb of Agamemnon is an
impressive "tholos" tomb on the Panagitsa Hill at
Mycenae, Greece, constructed during the Bronze Age
around 1250 BC. The lintel stone above the doorway
weighs 120 tons, the largest in the world. The tomb was
used for an unknown period. Mentioned by Pausanias, it
was still visible in 1879 when the German archeologist
Heinrich Schliemann discovered the shaft graves under
the 'agora' in the Acropolis at Mycenae. The tomb has
probably no relationship with either Atreus or
Agamemnon, as archaeologists believe that the sovereign
buried there ruled at an earlier date than the two; it was
named thus by Heinrich Schliemann and the name has
been used ever since.
Treasury of Atreus
The tomb perhaps held the remains of the
sovereign who completed the reconstruction of
the fortress or one of his successors. The grave is
in the style of the other tholoi of the Mycenaean
World, of which there are nine in total around the
citadel of Mycenae and five more in the Argolid.
However, in its monumental shape and grandeur
it is one of the most impressive monuments
surviving from Mycenaean Greece.
The image part with relationship IDrId2 was not found in the file.
Tomb of the Diver



Tomb of the Diver
It is a grave made of five local limestone slabs
forming the four lateral walls and the roof, the floor
being excavated in the natural rock ground. The five
slabs, accurately bonded with plaster, formed a
chamber sized roughly 7.1 3.3 2.6 ft. All five
slabs forming the monument were painted on the
interior sides using a true fresco technique. The
paintings on the four walls depict a symposium
scene, while the cover slab shows the famous scene
that gives the tomb its name: a young man diving
into a curling and waving stream of water.
Tomb of the Diver
The frescos (paintings) revealed its importance
as they appear to be the only example of Greek
painting with figured scenes dating from the
Orientalizing, Archaic, or Classical periods to
survive in its entirety. Among the thousands of
Greek tombs known from this time, this is the
only one to have been decorated with frescoes
of human subjects.
Tomb of the Diver
In the interior of the tomb, only a few objects
were found: near the corpse were a turtle shell,
two arballoi (the deceased youth's oil flasks, the
ones he used to oil himself for wrestling practice
at the gymnasium) and an Attic lekythos (his
favorite drinking cup).
Tomb of the Diver
The Tomb of the Diver is an archaeological
monument, found during an excavation of a
small necropolis about 1.5 km south of the Greek
city of Paestum in Magna Graecia, in what is now
southern Italy. The tomb is now displayed in the
museum at Paestum.
Tomb of Amyntas

Tombs of Amyntas
The rock-cut tombs, as example at Telmissus (Lycia),
usually have a portico of columns in antis, with one
or more chambers behind. In one example these are
about 12 feet by 9 feet, and 6 feet high. Most of the
columns are Ionic, few being Doric. In one case, the
whole tomb, which is 18 feet 6 inches deep, has been
quite detached, the whole excavation being 26 feet
deep from the face of the rock. Many of these tombs
present curious examples of wooden details imitated
in stone, example, the doors are often exactly like
those of wood, the panels, nails, & knockers, being
copied in stone.

Choragic Monument of Lysicrates

Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
The Choragic Monument is circular: the
entablature which crowns it is sustained by six
fluted columns, springing from a rectangular
pedestal 12.654 feet high, of which each side is
9.541 feet in length. The whole building
measures 7 feet diameter on the exterior, and 34
feet in height. The columns are of the same
height as the body of the building, including the
bases and capitals. They belong to the rich
Corinthian order, and their capitals are finely
sculptured with graceful foliage.
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
The architrave is divided horizontally into three
parts; and the frieze wrought with well-executed
figures in representation of the old myth of Dionysus
and the Tyrrhenian pirates, when the god changed
the mast and oars of their vessel into serpents and
himself into a lion ; filling the air with the noise of
enchanted flutes, until the sailors who would have
betrayed him were seized with madness, leaped into
the sea, and were transformed into dolphins. There is
no entrance to the building, nor any aperture to
afford light to the interior.
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
It is conjectured that the Choragic Monument
was erected about 335 years before the
Christian era, or in the glorious days of Apelles,
Lysippus, Demosthenes, and Alexander the
Great. All architectural critics agree in
eulogizing its admirable execution.
Trophy Monument


Trophy Monument
More beautiful in detail is the tomb known as the
Trophy, discovered by Sir C. Fellows, at Xanthus. It
consists of a peristyle of fourteen Ionic columns,
standing on a high basement about 33 feet by 22,
which has, to all appearance, no access to it . In the
centre, behind the columns, is a cella apparently
solid also. The date usually given to this is about 540.
But the edifice seems to be somewhat too refined in
detail for this time, and another date assigned to it,
about 385, appears to be more likely. This would be
about half-way, in point of time, between the
Erechtheum and the temple at Priene.
End