Arch

History

The arch became popular in the Roman times and mostly spread alongside the European influence, although it was known and occasionally used much earlier. Many ancient architectures avoided the use of arches, including the Viking and Hindu ones. True arches, as opposed to corbel arches, were known by a number of civilizations in the ancient Near East including the Levant, but their use was infrequent and mostly confined to underground structures, such as drains where the problem of lateral thrust is greatly diminished. An example of the latter would be the Nippur arch, built before 3800 BC, and dated by H. V. Hilprecht (1859–1925) to even before 4000 BC. Rare exceptions are an arched mudbrick home doorway dated to from Tell Taya in Iraq and two Bronze Age arched Canaanite city gates, one at Ashkelon (dated to ), and one at Tel Dan (dated to ), both in modern-day Israel. An Elamite tomb dated 1500 BC from Haft Teppe contains a parabolic vault which is considered one of the earliest evidences of arches in Iran. The use of true arches in Egypt also originated in the 4th millennium BC (underground barrel vaults at the Dendera cemetery). Standing arches were known since at least the Third Dynasty, but very few examples survived, since the arches were mostly used in non-durable secular buildings and made of mud brick voussoirs that were not wedge-shaped, but simply held in place by mortar, and thus susceptible to a collapse (the oldest arch still standing is at Ramesseum). Sacred buildings exhibited either lintel design or corbelled arches. Arches were mostly missing in Egypt temples even after the Roman conquest, even though Egyptians thought of the arch as a spiritual shape and used it in the rock-cut tombs and portable shrines. Auguste Mariette suggested that this…

Most-observed species

• European roe deer

  Capreolus capreolus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Mammalia
  13,751
• red fox

  Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758) · Mammalia
  9,790
• Meadow Brown

  Maniola jurtina (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  5,390
• Alcon Blue

  Maculinea alcon (Denis & Schiffermüller), 1776 · Insecta
  3,058
• European badger

  Meles meles (Linnaeus, 1758) · Mammalia
  3,026
• Eurasian beaver

  Castor fiber Linnaeus, 1758 · Mammalia
  2,994
• Common Blue

  Polyommatus icarus (von Rottemburg, 1775) · Insecta
  2,983
• common frog

  Rana temporaria Linnaeus, 1758 · Amphibia
  2,631

Most recent

• M 4.1 — 2025-07-21
  4 km E of Frutigen, Switzerland
• M 3.5 — 2024-06-27
  1 km SSW of Todtmoos, Germany
• M 4.4 — 2023-03-22
  1 km NW of Pont-de-Roide, France
• M 3.9 — 2022-09-10
  1 km WSW of Zimmersheim, France
• M 4.1 — 2021-12-24
  2 km WSW of Blamont, France
• M 3.1 — 2018-05-04
  2 km W of Schliengen, Germany