Inarchitecture, ahypostyle (/ˈhaɪpəˌstaɪl,ˈhɪpə-/)hall has a roof which is supported by columns.
The termhypostyle comes from theancient Greek ὑπόστυλοςhypóstȳlos meaning "under columns" (where ὑπόhypó means below or underneath and στῦλοςstŷlos means column).[1]
The roof may be constructed with bridginglintels of stone, wood or other rigid material such as cast iron, steel or reinforced concrete. There may be a ceiling. The columns may be all the same height or, as in the case of theGreat Hypostyle Hall atKarnak, the columns flanking the central space may be of greater height rather than those of the side aisles, allowing openings in the wall above the smaller columns, through which light is admitted over the aisle roof, throughclerestory windows.[3]
The architectural form has many applications, occurring in thecella ofancient Greek temples and in many Asian buildings, particularly of wood construction.
With a combination of columns andarches, the hypostyle hall became one of the two main types ofmosque construction. In many mosques, especially the early congregational mosques, the prayer hall has the hypostyle form.[4] One of the finest examples of the hypostyle-plan mosques is theGreat Mosque of Kairouan (also called the Mosque of Uqba) in the city ofKairouan,Tunisia.[5][6]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hypostyle".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 208.(pp 18-19) Early iterations of the Kaaba also had wooden columns. ... After this building succumbed to fire in the taking of the Haram, Ibn Zubayr ... placed three teak-wood columns in a single row. (p 20) The mosque at Kufa became so paradigmatic that later hypostyle mosques are generally known as Kufa- or Kufic-type mosques.
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