- Peripteros
Peripteros ( _el. Περίπτερος) is the special name given to a type of
ancient Greek or Roman temple surrounded by a portico with columns. It refers to the useful element for the architectural definition of buildings surrounded around their outside by a colonnade (pteron ) on all four sides of thecella (naos ), creating a four-sided arcade (peristasis). By extension, it also means simply the perimeter of a building (typically a classical temple), when that perimeter is made up of columns. The term is frequently used of buildings in theDoric order .cite book|title=History of Ancient Art|first=Franz von|last=Reber|coauthors=Joseph Thacher Clarke|publisher=Harper & Brothers|year=1882|accessdate=2007-11-06|location=University of Wisconsin - Madison|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=kW1GAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA419&lpg=PA419&dq=peripteros&source=web&ots=UNB2Qw5pAg&sig=5CTlFV0KY7CybvTSvmgyu7vplxM#PPA419,M1
pages=pp. 419-420]Definition
The peripteros can be a portico, a kiosk or a chapel. If it made up of four columns, it is tetrastyle; of 6, hexastyle; of 8, octastyle; of 10, decastyle; and of 12, dodecastyle. If the columns are fitted into the wall instead of standing alone, it is called a pseudo-peripteros.Fact|date=November 2007
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
