Column

In architecture a column is a cylindrical building part, either compounded of parts or made from as a single piece. Columns are frequently used to support beam?s or arch?es on which the upper parts of walls or ceilings rest. See Forms in Architecture.

In the architecture of ancient Egypt as early as 2600 B.C. the architect Imhotep made use of stone columns whose surface was carved to reflect the organic form of bundled reeds; in later Egyptian architecture faceted cylinders were also common.

The Roman author Vitruvius?, relying on no longer extant Greek authors, tells us that the ancient Greeks believed that their [Doric order]? developed from techniques for building in wood in which the earlier smoothed tree trunk was replaced by a stone cylinder.