In architecture, a semi-dome is a half dome that covers a semi-circular area in a building.
Typical Early Christian/Byzantine apse with a hemispherical semi-dome decorated in mosaic (Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna)
Looking up at the radiating semi-domes of Hagia Sophia
Exterior of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque
Mosaics in Nea Moni of Chios, 11th century
In architecture, an apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an exedra. In Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic Christian church architecture, the term is applied to a semi-circular or polygonal termination of the main building at the liturgical east end, regardless of the shape of the roof, which may be flat, sloping, domed, or hemispherical. Smaller apses are found elsewhere, especially in shrines.
Typical early Christian Byzantine apse with a hemispherical semi-dome in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe
Triple apse of Basilica di Santa Giulia, northern Italy
East end of the abbey church of Saint-Ouen, showing the chevet, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France
A chevet apse vault, Toulouse, France