Greek Architecture

By now you should have an idea about what the land in Greece looks like. Now let's take a look at some of the kinds of buildings you might have found in ancient Greece.

What would my house look like?

In ancient Greece, poor people and rich people lived in different kinds of houses. All houses were made of mud bricks and needed frequent repairs. Houses of the poor people were very simple compared to the houses of the rich, which had more rooms centered around a courtyard. Click to view a typical rich man's house.
The floors and walls in the houses were carefully created using stones, tiles, or pebbles. The nicest houses used pebbles to create mosaics. To do this, they went to the seashore and collected colored pebbles of similar sizes and arranged them in sand to make a picture or pattern on the floors or walls.

What did other buildings look like?

Other buildings in Greece were much more beautiful than the houses. Important buildings, such as temples, took many years to build. The Greeks are most famous for using a variety of columns in buildings to hold and support the roofs. The picture below shows the types of columns you would see. The Doric and Ionic columns were seen in ancient Greece while the Corinthian column was seen in ancient Rome.

columns

illustration courtesy of Pat Taylor