Entasis not a thing? Say it isn't so!

[DBS]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/sep/16/uk-mathematician-debunks-myth-parthenon-optical-illusions

Given the hours I devoted at school and university decades ago studying entasis et al...  I may need a drink or three and a long lie-down.

[Keraunos]

Illusory illusions, forsoothe!    Almost as bad as imaginary menageries.

[Jim Webster]

It makes sense to have slight slopes on the floor for drainage 

[Nick Harbud]

It is at times like these that one misses Patrick Waterson quoting Vitruvius at great length....

 

[DBS]

It makes sense to have slight slopes on the floor for drainage 

Don't you dare go looking for rational, pragmatic explanations!

I got enough grief as an undergrad for questioning whether it was entirely logical for Minoan palatial "sunken baths" to be lined with soluble gypsum...

[Erpingham]

I once queried a neolithic fortified village in an apparent non-violent period of prehistory.  I was particularly intrigued by the complex gate design, which would prevent an attacker just rushing the gate but place them in a twisting passageway.  The answer, according to my lecturer? Defence against wolves.

[stevenneate]

It is at times like these that one misses Patrick Waterson quoting Vitruvius at great length....

 

I remember telling Vitruvius at the time, "Mate, it does not matter how you spin the wobbly pillars to the Council, the renovation has been botched."

[Jim Webster]

It makes sense to have slight slopes on the floor for drainage 

Don't you dare go looking for rational, pragmatic explanations!

I got enough grief as an undergrad for questioning whether it was entirely logical for Minoan palatial "sunken baths" to be lined with soluble gypsum...

I have spent more of my life dealing with drainage than with undergraduates 

[Swampster]

I once queried a neolithic fortified village in an apparent non-violent period of prehistory.  I was particularly intrigued by the complex gate design, which would prevent an attacker just rushing the gate but place them in a twisting passageway.  The answer, according to my lecturer? Defence against wolves.

More imaginative than the usual ´ritual' or ´status symbol'.
P.

[Jim Webster]

I once queried a neolithic fortified village in an apparent non-violent period of prehistory.  I was particularly intrigued by the complex gate design, which would prevent an attacker just rushing the gate but place them in a twisting passageway.  The answer, according to my lecturer? Defence against wolves.

Sea wolves?