What is Byzantine architecture?
[[File:StSophiaChurch-Sofia-10.jpg|thumb|250px|{{center|[[Hagia Sophia Church (Sofia)|Hagia Sophia Church]], [[Sofia]], [[Bulgaria]]; an example of Byzantine architecture}}]] '''Byzantine architecture''' is the [[architecture|architectural style]] of the [[Byzantine Empire]]. This is a term used by modern [[historian]]s to mean the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] based in [[Constantinople]]. The empire lasted for more than a [[millennium]]. It left a lasting [[wikt:influence|influence]] on [[Medieval]] architecture in [[Europe]] and the [[Near East]]. It also influenced the later [[Renaissance architecture]] and [[Ottoman architecture]]. == As a distinctive style == [[File:Pendentive and Dome.png|thumb|left|130px|{{Center|A Dome on a pendentive}}]] Early Byzantine architecture [[wikt:evolve|evolve]]d from [[Early Christian art and architecture|Early Christian architecture]].<ref name=Hamlin122>Alfred D. Hamlin, ''History of Architecture'' (Bremen: Salzwasser-Verl., 2010), p. 122</ref> The early Christian style typically was a [[basilica]] with three or five [[List of church architecture terms|isles]].<ref name=Hamlin122/> Usually they had [[wooden]] [[roof]]s. [[Vault (architecture)|Vault]]s and [[dome]]s were [[wikt:rarely|rarely]] used. Byzantine architecture rarely used three isle or five isle basilicas.<ref name=Hamlin122/> In this style domes were frequently used.<ref name=Hamlin122/> The [[Semi-dome]] was also used, especially over an [[apse]].<ref name=Hourihane303>''The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture'', Volume 2, ed. Colum Hourihane (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). p. 303</ref> It reached its highest form with the use of the [[pendentive]]. These are usually used to support a dome. The Byzantine pendentive is a [[geometric]] form using four [[Triangle|triangular]] [[legs]] sitting on a [[square]] base.<ref>Russell Sturgis; Francis A. Davis, ''Sturgis Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture and Building'', Vol. III O - Z (Mineola, NY: Dover, 1989), pp. 88–89</ref> It developed duri