Ionic order
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The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan, and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite order. Of the three classical canonic orders, the Corinthian order has the narrowest columns, followed by the Ionic order, with the Doric order having the widest columns.
Ionic capital at the Erechtheum (Athens), 5th century BC
Original polychromy in Ionic temples
19th century illustration of multiple polychrome elements of Ancient Greek architecture, including an Ionic capital in the top left, by Jacques Ignace Hittorff
Fluting (architecture)
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Fluting in architecture and the decorative arts consists of shallow grooves running along a surface. The term typically refers to the curved grooves (flutes) running vertically on a column shaft or a pilaster, but is not restricted to those two applications. If the hollowing out of material meets in a point, the point is called an arris. If the raised ridge between two flutes appears flat, the ridge is a fillet.
Concave fluting on Doric order columns; Northington Grange, a Greek Revival building of 1804-1817
St Peter's Basilica, Rome, with cable-fluted pilasters and fluted columns
Very untypical spiral fluted columns in the Great Colonnade at Apamea in Syria
Convex-fluted engaged columns at Djoser's funerary complex in Saqqara, Egypt. Before 2600 BC.