Generally, we think of Egyptians as building pyramids. However, pyramids were burial tombs. Egyptians wanted the living people to be happy, so they also built temples. Along the Nile River, passing through Egypt, many Egyptians grew papyrus that could be written on, reeds that could be woven into baskets and flax that could be woven into linen cloth. Since the Nile flows northward, instead of southward as with most rivers, the Egyptians were superstitious and worshipped many gods of nature. These pagan gods the Egyptians thought controlled the River.

The Egyptians had temples, similar to our churches and synagogues, where they worshipped. Outside the temple were many posts. A row of posts were called a "colonnade." Each post contained a top called a "capital." Usually, the capitals were plain. Occasionally, at some temples the capitals were decorated as several standing rushes tied in the middle by a wide band.

A colonnade with a roof that looked like a modern-day porch was called a "portico." The portico was the entrance outside the opening to the temple.

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In order to make the columns in the colonade look round, the Egyptians made deep grooves from the top of the post or "shaft" to the bottom. These grooves were called "fluting." They were concave in shape. "Concave" means that the fluting looked like the letter, "U." With the sun hitting the fluting and reflecting off the grooves, the column's shaft looked to be round. From a distance one would see only the vertical lines in the shaft of the column. Closer to the shaft, one could see that the shaft of the column was not one piece, but several drums of the same size--all on top of the other.

Question: Can you remember the terms we borrowed from the Egyptians: colonnade, shaft, capital, portico, fluting, concave?  Look around your house and find any of these terms.