Origin of Slanting Roofs.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 179, 20 November 1886, Page 5

Origin of Slanting Roofs.

To find the source from which the European nations have deriVed the art of building in. atone we must look to the land of the Pharaohs. From Egypt the craft passed toGreece, and from the Greeks it was taken up by the Romans, to b» by themdi^senainatecf through the north and west of Europe in the process of colonisation. The similarity in i*egard to the constructive pirts of the ancient Greek buildings to some of tho=>e found in Egypt of older date affords strong confirmation of the tradition that tho Greeks borrowed the art from the Etryptiant. The Greeks, however, in adopting it added a, new feature, the pediment, and the reason: for this addition is easy to find. Egypt is practically rainless. All the protection; from the climate required in a palace or temple in such a country ig shelter from that eun by day and from the cold at night, and. for this n flat roof, .supported by walls, or pillars with architrave 3, is quite sufficient ; but when, as in all European countries, rain has to betaken into account, a slanting roof becomes a necee'pity. Thsr Greeks, with their eye for symmetry, provided for thid by forming the loof with a ridge, at an obtu3e angle, from which it eloped down equally on either side. The. triangular space thus formed at the end of the building, above the architrave, was occupied by the pedjment, and this part of the facade, which owed its birth to the exigencies of climate, was thenceforth regarded as co essential to the artistic com- ■> pletenesa of the work that it was said that if a temple were to be erected in the celestial regions, where rain would not be poaei* We, the pediment could not be omitted: