In traditional Persian architecture, a dome is referred to as a gonbad (گنبد). The Baháí House of Worship by Fariborz Sahba, also known as the Lotus Temple. ... St Peters Basilica (topped with a lantern), Rome A dome is a common structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. ...

The history of designing gonbads dates back to pre-Islamic Persia. The Parthians in particular were very keen in using such structures in their designs. The Sassanids inherited them and elevated their designs into full maturity. Reproduction of a Parthian warrior as depicted on Trajans Column The Parthian Empire was the dominating force on the Iranian plateau beginning in the late 3rd century BCE, and intermittently controlled Mesopotamia between ca 190 BCE and 224 CE. Origins Bust of Parthian soldier, Esgh-abad Museum, Turkmenia. ... Sassanid Empire at its greatest extent The Sassanid dynasty (also Sassanian) was the name given to the kings of Persia during the era of the second Persian Empire, from 224 until 651, when the last Sassanid shah, Yazdegerd III, lost a 14-year struggle to drive out the Umayyad Caliphate...

A gonbad is often double layered, and can have many shapes, such as semi-spherical, partial spherical, onion shaped, paraboloid, polygonal conical, and circular conical. Hyperbolic paraboloid Paraboloid of revolution In mathematics, a paraboloid is a quadric, a type of surface in three dimensions, described by the equation: (elliptic paraboloid), or (hyperbolic paraboloid). ... A cone is a basic geometrical shape: see cone (geometry). ...

In pre-Islamic times, the gonbad was a sign of imperial grandeur for the king. In Islamic times, the tradition continued, and the interiors were made to simulate the celestial dome, reminding the muslim of Man's place in the cosmos vis a vis God and creation. In astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an imaginary rotating sphere of gigantic radius, concentric with the Earth. ...

Closeup of a gonbad revealing tile configuration.

A typical gonbad seen from above.

The massive parabolic gonabds of the Palace of Ardashir provided a spectacular scene for visitors of the throne. A parabola A parabola (from the Greek: παραβολή) is a conic section generated by the intersection of a cone, and a plane tangent to the cone or parallel to some plane tangent to the cone. ... Aerial view of Ardeshirs castle ruins, built by Ardashir I of the Sassanian dynasty of Persia. ...

Sample of a medieval design polygonal conical gonbad. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1046x742, 676 KB) Summary I took this photo with a Fuji 200 film camera. ...

For a philosophical discussion of the dome in traditional architecture of Persia, see "Sense of Unity" by Nader Ardalan and Laleh Bakhtiar, ISBN 1871031788

See also

• Architecture of Iran