1.
Xianbei
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The Xianbei were proto-Mongols residing in what became todays eastern Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeast China. Along with the Xiongnu, they were one of the nomadic groups in northern China during the Han Dynasty. They eventually established their own dynasties, including the Northern Wei founded in the 4th century AD by the Tuoba clan. It is generally accepted that the Xianbei spoke a related to the Mongolic languages. Claus Schönig writes, The Xianbei derived from the context of the Donghu, Later branches and descendants of the Xianbei include the Tabghach and Khitan, who seem to have been linguistically Para-Mongolic. Opinions differ widely as to what the impact of the Xianbei period was. Chinese historical texts unequivocally state that the Xianbei were descendants of the Donghu, the Xianbei were a northern or northeastern Asian population according to modern Chinese and Russian anthropologists. After the Donghu were defeated by Modu Chanyu around 208 BCE, the Book of the Later Han says that “the language and culture of the Xianbei are the same as the Wuhuan”. The Records of the Three Kingdoms say, Tanshihuai of the Xianbei divided his territory into three sections, the eastern, the middle and the western, from the You Beiping to the Liao River, connecting the Fuyu and Mo to the east, it was the eastern section. There were more than twenty counties, the darens were called Mijia, Queji, Suli and Huaitou. From the You Beiping to Shanggu to the west, it was the middle section, there were more than ten counties. The darens of this section were called Kezui, Queju, Murong, from Shanggu to Dunhuang, connecting the Wusun to the west, it was the western section. There were more than twenty counties, the darens were called Zhijian Luoluo, Rilü Tuiyan, Yanliyou, et al. These chiefs were all subordinate to Tanshihuai, … Refined metals and wrought iron have come into the possession of the rebels. Han deserters also seek refuge and serve as their advisers and their weapons are sharper and their horses are faster than those of the Xiong-nu. But in so doing they are bent on gaining precious Chinese goods. As soon as they all they possibly can, they turn in their tracks to start wreaking damage. Around A. D.155, the northern Xiongnu were crushed and subjugated by the Xianbei and their chief, known by the Chinese as Tan-shih-huai, then advanced upon and defeated the Wusun of the Ili by A. D.166
2.
Northern Wei
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During the Taihe period of Emperor Xiaowen, court advisers instituted sweeping reforms and introduced changes that eventually led to the dynasty moving its capital from Datong to Luoyang, in 494. The Tuoba renamed themselves the Yuan as a part of systematic Sinicization, towards the end of the dynasty there was significant internal dissension resulting in a split into Eastern Wei and Western Wei. Many antiques and art works, both Daoist and Buddhist, from this period have survived, the Jin Dynasty had developed an alliance with the Tuoba against the Xiongnu state Han Zhao. In 315 the Tuoba chief was granted the title of the Prince of Dai, after Former Qins emperor Fu Jiān was defeated by Jin forces at the Battle of Fei River in his failed bid to unify China, the Former Qin state began to break apart. By 386, Tuoba Gui, the son of Tuoba Shiyijian, Later he changed his title to the Prince of Wei, and his state was therefore known as Northern Wei. In 391, Tuoba Gui defeated the Rouran tribes and killed their chief, Heduohan, initially Northern Wei was a vassal of Later Yan, but by 395 had rebelled and by 398 had conquered most of Later Yan territory north of the Yellow River. In 399 Tuoba Gui he declared himself Emperor Daowu, and that title was used by Northern Weis rulers for the rest of the states history, as the empires history progressed, this appeared to be a major contributing factor leading to corruption among officials. Not until the 2nd century of the empires existence did the state begin to distribute salaries to its officials, only an imperial consort who was successful in forging a golden statue could become the empress. All men, regardless of ethnicity, were ordered to tie their hair into a braid that would then be rolled and placed on top of the head. When a crown prince is named, his mother, if still alive, as a result, because emperors would not have mothers, they often honored their wet nurses with the honorific title, Nurse Empress Dowager. As sinicization of the Northern Wei state progressed, these customs, Five families formed a neighborhood Five lin formed a village Five li formed a commune At each of these levels, leaders that were associated with the central government were appointed. In order for the state to reclaim dry, barren areas of land, the Sui and Tang Dynasties later resurrected this system in the 7th century. During the reign of Emperor Daowu, the number of deported people from the regions east of Taihangshan to Datong was estimated to be around 460,000. Deportations typically took place once a new piece of territory had been conquered, as the Northern Wei state grew, the emperors desire for Han Chinese institutions and advisors grew. Cui Hao, an advisor at the courts in Datong played a part in this process. He introduced Han Chinese administrative methods and penal codes in the Northern Wei state, Chinese influence accelerated during the capitals move to Luoyang in 494 and Emperor Xiaowen continued this by establishing a policy of systematic sinicization that was continued by his successors. The royal family took the sinicization a step further by changing their name to Yuan. Marriages to Chinese families were encouraged, with this, Buddhist temples started appearing everywhere, displacing Taoism as the state religion
3.
Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
4.
Concubinage
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The woman in such a relationship is referred to as a concubine. The prevalence of concubinage and the status of rights and expectations of a concubine have varied between cultures as well as the rights of children of a concubine. Whatever the status and rights of the concubine, they were inferior to those of the wife. Historically, concubinage was frequently entered into voluntarily as it provided a measure of security for the woman involved. Involuntary or servile concubinage sometimes involved sexual slavery of one member of the relationship, nevertheless, sexual relations outside marriage were not uncommon, especially among royalty and nobility, and the woman in such relationships was commonly described as a mistress. However, the children of such relationships were counted as illegitimate and were barred from inheriting the title or estates. While various forms of sexual relationships and co-habitation short of marriage have become increasingly common in the Western world. The terms concubinage and concubine are used primarily when referring to non-marital partnerships of earlier eras. In modern usage, a domestic relationship is commonly referred to as co-habitation. Concubinage was highly popular before early 20th century all over Asia, the main function of concubinage was producing additional heirs, as well as bring males pleasure. Children of concubines had lower rights in account to inheritance, which was regulated by Dishu system, after that, even concubinage has been legally banned, the relationship between mistresses and their men are highly affected by it. In China, successful men often had concubines until the practice was outlawed after the Communist Party of China came to power in 1949, the standard Chinese term translated as concubine was qiè 妾, a term used since ancient times, which means female slave. Concubines resembled wives in that they were recognized sexual partners of a family member and were expected to bear children from him. Unofficial concubines, are of lower status, and children of her are considered illegitimate, in English the term concubine is also used for what the Chinese refer to as pínfēi consorts of emperors, some of very high rank. In premodern China, it was illegal and socially disreputable for a man to have more than one wife at a time, but he could have concubines. At first a man could have as many concubines as he could afford, however, from the Eastern Han onward, the higher ranking and the more noble an identity a man possessed, the more concubines he was permitted to have. A concubines treatment and situation were highly variable and were influenced by the status of the male to whom she was engaged. In the Book of Rites chapter on “The Pattern of the Family” it says, “If there were betrothal rites, she became a wife, and if she went without these, Concubines could be taken without any of the ceremonies used in marriages
5.
Datong
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It had a population of 3,318,057 at the 2010 census of whom 1,629,035 lived in the built up area made of 3 out of 4 urban districts, namely Chengqu, Kuangqu and Nanjiao District. The town was founded as Píngchéng in 200 BC during the Han dynasty, located near the Great Wall Pass to Inner Mongolia, it blossomed during the following period and became a stop-off point for camel caravans moving from China into Mongolia and beyond. It was sacked at the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, pingcheng became the capital of Northern Wei from 398 AD until 494 AD, when the well-known Yungang Grottoes were constructed during the later part of this period. The city was renamed Datong in 1048 AD and it was the Xijing of the Jurchen Jin dynasty prior to being sacked by the Mongols. It was sacked again at the end of the Ming dynasty in 1649 AD, Datong was close to the Beidi kingdom of Tai, which was conquered by the Zhou dynasty in 457 BC. It bordered on the Hu nomads and traded in horses, Tai was later a commandery or county. Datong is the northernmost city of Shanxi, and is located in the Datong Basin, with an area spanning latitude 39° 03–40°44 N. The urban area is surrounded on three sides by mountains, with only to the east and southwest. Within the prefecture-level city elevations generally increase from southeast to northwest, Datong borders Ulanqab to the northwest and Zhangjiakou to the east, Shuozhou to the southwest and Xinzhou to the south. The well-known Datong Volcanic Arc lies nearby in the Datong Basin, Datong has a continental, monsoon-influenced steppe climate, influenced by the 1,000 metres + elevation, with rather long, cold, very dry winters, and very warm summers. Monthly mean temperatures range from −10.6 °C in January to 22.0 °C in July, Due to the aridity and elevation, diurnal temperature variation is often large, averaging 13.3 °C annually. There barely is any precipitation during winter, and more than ¾ of the precipitation occurs from June to September. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 54% in July to 66% in October, sunshine is abundant year-round, kuang District is largely made up of separate mines throughout the metropolitan area. The Yungang Grottoes are a collection of caves located 16 km west of Datong. There are over 50,000 carved images and statues of Buddhas and bodhisattvas within these grottoes, most of these icons are around 1000 years old. Within the city itself, there are a few surviving sites of historical interest such as the Nine-Dragon Wall, the Huayan Monastery, further afield is the Hanging Temple built into a cliff face near Mount Heng. Most of the sites in this region date to the Tang and Ming dynasties. The railway locomotive works began to attract increasing numbers of enthusiasts from the 1970s
6.
Shanxi
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Shanxi is a province of China, located in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is 晋, after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring, the name Shanxi means West of the Mountains, a reference to the provinces location west of the Taihang Mountains. Shanxi borders Hebei to the east, Henan to the south, Shaanxi to the west, the capital of the province is Taiyuan. In the Spring and Autumn period, the state of Jin was located in what is now Shanxi and it underwent a three-way split into the states of Han, Zhao and Wei in 403 BC, the traditional date taken as the start of the Warring States period. By 221 BC, all of states had fallen to the state of Qin. The Han Dynasty ruled Shanxi as the province of Bingzhou, during the invasion of northern nomads in the Sixteen Kingdoms period, several regimes including the Later Zhao, Former Yan, Former Qin, and Later Yan continuously controlled Shanxi. They were followed by Northern Wei, a Xianbei kingdom, which had one of its earlier capitals at present-day Datong in northern Shanxi, the Tang Dynasty originated in Taiyuan. During the Tang Dynasty and after, present day Shanxi was called Hédōng, empress Wu Zetian, Chinas only female ruler, was born in Shanxi. Shanxi was initially home to the jiedushi of Hedong, Li Cunxu, shi Jingtang, founder of the Later Jin, the third of the Five Dynasties, ceded a piece of northern China to the Khitans in return for military assistance. This territory, called The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, included a part of northern Shanxi, the ceded territory became a major problem for Chinas defense against the Khitans for the next 100 years, because it lay south of the Great Wall. He founded his dynasty by launching a coup against the Turkic Later Han Emperor. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the sixteen ceded prefectures continued to be an area of contention between Song China and the Liao Dynasty. Later the Southern Song Dynasty abandoned all of North China, including Shanxi, the Mongol Yuan Dynasty divided China into provinces but did not establish Shanxi as a province. Shanxi only gained its present name and approximate borders during the Ming Dynasty which were of the same landarea, with the collapse of the Qing dynasty, Shanxi became part of the newly established Republic of China. During most of the Republic of Chinas period of rule over mainland China, Yan Xishan devoted himself to modernizing Shanxi and developing its resources during his reign over the province. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japan occupied much of the province after winning the Battle of Taiyuan, Shanxi was also a major battlefield between the Japanese and the Chinese communist guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army during the war. The soldiers of Shanxi province under Yan Xishan viciously fought against the invading Japanese, right after the defeat of Japan, much of the Shanxi countryside became important bases for the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the ensuing Chinese Civil War. Shanxi was eventually conquered by the communists, resulting in the warlord Yan Xishans retreat to Taiwan Island, for centuries, Shanxi served as the center of trade and banking, the Shanxi merchants were once synonymous with wealth
7.
Henan
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Henan is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is 豫, named after Yuzhou, a Han Dynasty state that parts of Henan. Although the name of the province south of the river, approximately a quarter of the province lies north of the Yellow River. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou which literally means central plain land or midland, although the name is also applied to the entirety of China proper. Henan is the birthplace of Chinese civilization with over 3,000 years of recorded history, and remained Chinas cultural, economical, numerous heritages have been left behind including the ruins of Shang Dynasty capital city Yin and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the Eight Great Ancient Capitals of China, Luoyang, Anyang, Kaifeng, with an area of 167,000 km2, Henan covers a large part of the fertile and densely populated North China Plain. Its neighbouring provinces are Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, Henan is Chinas third most populous province with a population of over 94 million. If it were a country by itself, Henan would be the 12th most populous country in the world, behind Mexico, Henan is the 5th largest provincial economy of China and the largest among inland provinces. However, per capita GDP is low compared to eastern and central provinces. The economy continues to depend on its dwindling aluminum and coal reserves, as well as agriculture, heavy industry, tourism, high-tech industry and service sector is underdeveloped and is concentrated around Zhengzhou and Luoyang. Widely regarded as the Cradle of Chinese civilization along with Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, Henan is known for its historical prosperity, the economic prosperity resulted from its extensive fertile plains and its location at the heart of the country. However, its location also means that it has suffered from nearly all of the major wars in China. In addition, the floods of the Yellow River have caused significant damage from time to time. Kaifeng, in particular, has been buried by the Yellow Rivers silt seven times due to flooding, archaeological sites reveal that prehistoric cultures such as the Yangshao Culture and Longshan Culture were active in what is now northern Henan since the Neolithic Era. The more recent Erlitou culture has been identified with the Xia Dynasty. Virtually the entire kingdom existed within what is now north and central Henan, the Xia Dynasty collapsed around the 16th century BC following the invasion of Shang, a neighboring vassal state centered around todays Shangqiu in eastern Henan. The Shang Dynasty was the first literate dynasty of China and its many capitals are located at the modern cities of Shangqiu, Yanshi, and Zhengzhou. Their last and most important capital, Yin, located in modern Anyang, is where the first Chinese writing was created, in the 11th century BC, the Zhou Dynasty of Shaanxi arrived from the west and overthrew the Shang Dynasty
8.
Emperor
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An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the equivalent, may indicate an emperors wife, mother. Emperors are generally recognized to be of an honour and rank than kings. The Emperor of Japan is the currently reigning monarch whose title is translated into English as Emperor. Both kings and emperors are monarchs, but emperor and empress are considered the higher monarchical titles. In as much as there is a definition of emperor, it is that an emperor has no relations implying the superiority of any other ruler. Thus a king might be obliged to pay tribute to another ruler, or be restrained in his actions in some unequal fashion, although initially ruling much of Central Europe and northern Italy, by the 19th century the Emperor exercised little power beyond the German speaking states. In Eastern Europe the rulers of the Russian Empire also used translatio imperii to wield authority as successors to the Eastern Roman Empire. Their title of Emperor was officially recognised by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1514, in practice the Russian Emperors are often known by their Russian-language title Tsar, which may also used to refer to rulers equivalent to a king. Historians have liberally used emperor and empire anachronistically and out of its Roman and European context to any large state from the past or the present. Such pre-Roman titles as Great King or King of Kings, used by the Kings of Persia, however such empires did not need to be headed by an emperor. Empire became identified instead with vast territorial holdings rather than the title of its ruler by the mid-18th century, outside the European context, emperor was the translation given to holders of titles who were accorded the same precedence as European emperors in diplomatic terms. In reciprocity, these rulers might accredit equal titles in their languages to their European peers. Through centuries of international convention, this has become the dominant rule to identifying an emperor in the modern era, also the name of the position split in several branches of Western tradition, see below. Later new symbols of worldly and/or spiritual power, like the orb, rules for indicating successors also varied, there was a tendency towards male inheritance of the supreme office, but as well election by noblemen, as ruling empresses are known. Ruling monarchs could additionally steer the succession by adoption, as occurred in the two first centuries of Imperial Rome. Of course, intrigue, murder and military force could also mingle in for appointing successors, probably the epoch best known for this part of the imperial tradition is Romes third century rule. When Republican Rome turned into a de facto monarchy in the half of the 1st century BC
9.
Anhui
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Anhui is a landlocked province of the Peoples Republic of China located in the eastern region of the country. The name Anhui derives from the names of two cities, Anqing and Huizhou, the abbreviation for Anhui is Chinese, 皖, pinyin, wǎn after the historical State of Wan, Mount Wan, and the Wan river. The province of Anhui was formed in the 17th century, before then, there was no coherent concept of Anhui. In terms of culture, Northern Anhui was firmly a part of the North China Plain together with modern-day Henan province, northern Jiangsu, Central Anhui was densely populated and constituted mostly of fertile land from the Huai River watershed. In contrast, the culture of Southern Anhui, bordered mostly along the Yangtze, was closer to Jiangxi, the hills of southeastern Anhui formed a unique and distinct cultural sphere of its own. In the 2007 book China Road, author Rob Gifford stated that the Chinese refer to Anhui as a big agricultural province, according to Gifford, this is an euphemism for a very poor area and that people have referred to Anhui as the Appalachia of China. The north of the province is part of the North China Plain while the areas are part of the Huai River watershed. Both of these regions are flat and densely populated. The land becomes more uneven further south, with the Dabie Mountains occupying much of southwestern Anhui, the Yangtze River finds its way through south Anhui in between these two mountainous regions. The highest peak in Anhui is Lotus Peak, part of Huangshan in southeastern Anhui and it has an altitude of 1873 m. Major rivers include the Huai River in the north and the Yangtze in the south, the largest lake is Lake Chaohu situated in the center of the province, with an area of about 800 km2. The southeastern part of the province near the Yangtze River has many lakes as well, as with topography, the province differs in climate from north to south. The north is more temperate and has more clearcut seasons, january temperatures average at around -1 to 2 °C north of the Huai River, and 0 to 3 °C south of the Huai River, in July temperatures average 27 °C or above. Plum rains occur in June and July and may cause flooding, major cities, Anhui is divided into sixteen prefecture-level divisions, all prefecture-level cities, The sixteen prefecture-level divisions of Anhui are subdivided into 105 county-level divisions. Those are in turn divided into 1,845 township-level divisions, the Politics of Anhui Province is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in mainland China. The Governor of Anhui is the official in the Peoples Government of Anhui. Agriculture in Anhui varies according to the zones that the province crosses. To the north of the Huai River, wheat and sweet potatoes are grown, while to the south of the Huai River it is rice, natural resources of Anhui include iron in Maanshan, coal in Huainan, and copper in Tongling
10.
Yellow River
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The Yellow River or Huang He is the second-longest river in Asia, following the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 km. Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of western China, it flows through nine provinces, the Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers and a north–south extent of about 1,100 km. Its total basin area is about 742,443 square kilometers and its basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and it was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. Early Chinese literature including the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu dating to the Warring States period refers to the Yellow River as simply 河, the first appearance of the name 黃河 is in the Book of Han written during the Eastern Han dynasty about the Western Han dynasty. The adjective yellow describes the color of the muddy water in the lower course of the river. One of its older Mongolian names was the Black River, because the river runs clear before it enters the Loess Plateau, in Mongolia itself, it is simply called the Šar Mörön. In Qinghai, the rivers Tibetan name is River of the Peacock above sea level they are the two largest plateau freshwater lakes nationwide, flowing east at the eastern edge of the Amne Machin Mountains, the Yellow River enters Maqu County in Gansu. Here, the river skirts through the peat bog known as the Zoigê Wetlands. Flowing now along the edge of Amne Machin, the river reenters Qinghai. The valley section stretches from Longyang Gorge in Qinghai to Qingtong Gorge in Gansu, steep cliffs line both sides of the river. The water bed is narrow and the drop is large, so the flow in this section is extremely turbulent. There are 20 gorges in this section, the most famous of these being the Longyang, Jishi, Liujia, Bapan, the flow conditions in this section makes it the best location for hydroelectric plants. The Yellow River exits Qinghai for the second and final time in these gorges, downstream from the Yanguo Gorge, the provincial capital of Lanzhou is built upon the Yellow Rivers banks. The Yellow River flows northeasterly out of Gansu and into Ningxia before the Qingtong Gorge, after emerging from the Qingtong Gorge, the river comes into a section of vast alluvial plains, the Yinchuan Plain and Hetao Plain. In this section, the regions along the river are mostly deserts and grasslands, the Hetao Plain has a length of 900 km and width of 30 to 50 km. It is historically the most important irrigation plain along the Yellow River, the Ordos Loop formed by an enormous twist of the Yellow River, beginning at Zhongning County in Ningxia and ending with a drastic eastward turn at its confluence with the Wei at Tongguan in Shaanxi. However, the division for the middle reaches of the river run from Hekou in Togtoh County, Inner Mongolia, to Zhengzhou. The middle reaches are 1,206 km long, with an area of 344,000 square kilometers,45. 7% of the total, with a total elevation drop of 890 m
11.
Vault (architecture)
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Vault is an architectural term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert lateral thrust that requires a counter resistance, when vaults are built underground, the ground gives all the resistance required. However, when the vault is built above ground, various replacements are employed to supply the needed resistance, an example is the thicker walls used in the case of barrel or continuous vaults. Buttresses are used to supply resistance when intersecting vaults are employed, the simplest kind of vault is the barrel vault, which is generally semicircular in shape. The barrel vault is an arch, the length being greater than its diameter. As in building an arch, a support is needed while rings of voussoirs are constructed. Until the topmost voussoir, the keystone, is positioned, the vault is not self-supporting, with a barrel vault, the centering can then be shifted on to support the next rings. Amongst the earliest known examples of any form of vaulting is to be found in the village of Khirokitia on Cyprus. Dating from ca.6000 BCE, the circular buildings supported beehive shaped corbel domed vaults of unfired mud-bricks, similar Beehive tombs, called tholoi, exist in Crete and Northern Iraq. Their construction differs from that at Khirokitia in that most appear partially buried, the inclusion of domes, however, represents a wider sense of the word vault. The distinction between the two is that a vault is essentially an arch which is extruded into the third dimension, whereas a dome is an arch revolved around its vertical axis. Pitched-brick vaults are named for their construction, the bricks are installed vertically and are leaning at an angle, examples have been found in archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia dating to the 2nd and 3rd millennium BC which were set in gypsum mortar. A barrel vault is the simplest form of a vault and resembles a barrel or tunnel cut lengthwise in half, the effect is that of a structure composed of continuous semicircular or pointed sections. The earliest known examples of barrel vaults were built by the Sumerians, possibly under the ziggurat at Nippur in Babylonia, which was built of fired bricks cemented with clay mortar. The earliest barrel vaults in ancient Egypt are thought to be those in the built by the 19th dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II. The vault being over 800 feet long,10 feet in span, the enormous Eyvan-e Khosro at Ctesiphon was built over 1,500 years ago during the Persian Sasanian period as a throne room. The arch is about 37 metres high,26 metres across and 50 metres long, built entirely without centering, the rings relieved the centering from the weight imposed, and the two layers of bricks carried the concrete till it had set. As the walls carrying these vaults were built in concrete with occasional bond courses of brick
