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Aterrace garden is agarden with a raised flat paved or gravelled section overlooking aprospect.[1] A raised terrace keeps a house dry and provides a transition between thehardscape and thesoftscape.
Since a level site is generally regarded as a requisite for comfort and repose, the terrace as a raised viewing platform made an early appearance in the ancientPersian gardening tradition, where the enclosed orchard, orparadise, was to be viewed from a ceremonial tent. Such a terrace had its origins in the far older agricultural practice of terracing a sloping site (seeTerrace (agriculture)). TheHanging Gardens of Babylon must have been built on an artificial mountain with stepped terraces, like those on aziggurat.
Lucullus brought back to Rome first-hand experience of Persian gardening in the hilly sites of Asia Minor; the villagardens of Maecenas, which included libraries open to scholars, incurred the disdain ofSeneca. AtPraeneste during the early Imperial period, the sanctuary ofFortuna was enlarged and elaborated, the natural slope being shaped into a series of terraces linked by stairs.
The imperial villas atCapri were built to take advantage of varied terraces. At the seasideVilla of the Papyri in Herculaneum, the villa gardens ofJulius Caesar's father-in-law fell away in a series of terraces, giving pleasant and varied views of the Bay of Naples. Only some of them have been excavated. AtVilla of Livia, probably part ofLivia Drusilla's dowry brought to theJulio-Claudian dynasty, rooms in thecryptoporticus beneath terracing were frescoed with trees in bloom and fruit.
During theItalian Renaissance, the formalized, civilizing imprint of human control over wild nature expressed in terracing that was combined with stairs and water features, drew villa patrons and garden designers to escarpments that surveyed a handsome prospect. At the influentialCortile del Belvedere at theVatican Palace, perfected under a series of popes from the earliest 16th century, the backdrop within the enclosed court was a raised terrace. The view in this case was from theStanze of Raphael on an upper floor of the Palace.
Even in the most naturalisticlandscape gardens ofCapability Brown, a raised gravelled or paved terrace along the garden front offered a dry walk in damp weather and a transition between the hard materials of the architecture and the rolling greensward beyond.
Contemporary terrace gardens, in addition to being in the garden and landscape, often occur in urban areas and areterrace architecture elements that extend out from an apartment or residence at any floor level other than ground level. They are often discussed in conjunction withroof gardens, although they are not always actual roof gardens, instead being balconies and decks. These outdoor spaces can become lush gardens through the use ofcontainer gardening, automateddrip irrigation andlow-flow irrigation systems, and outdoor furnishings.