The English word "dome" ultimately derives from the ancient Greek and Latin domus ("house"), which, up through the Renaissance, … See more

The earliest domes in the Middle East were built with mud-brick and, eventually, with baked brick and stone. Domes of wood allowed for … See more

A masonry dome produces thrusts downward and outward. They are thought of in terms of two kinds of forces at right angles from one another: meridional forces (like the meridians, or lines of longitude, on a globe) are compressive only, and increase towards … See more

Across the ancient world, curved-roof structures that would today be called domes had a number of different names reflecting a variety of shapes, traditions, and symbolic associations. The shapes were derived from traditions of pre-historic shelters made from … See more

The word "cupola" is another word for "dome", and is usually used for a small dome upon a roof or turret. "Cupola" has also been used to describe the inner side of a dome. The top of a dome is the "crown". The inner side of a dome is called the "intrados" and … See more

According to E. Baldwin Smith, from the late Stone Age the dome-shaped tomb was used as a reproduction of the ancestral, god-given … See more

Because domes are concave from below, they can reflect sound and create echoes. A dome may have a "whispering gallery" at its base that at … See more