Glossary · S
Semicircular arch
Also called semicircular, round arch, round arches
A round arch whose intrados is a half-circle struck from one centre on the springing line; its rise is always half its span. The arch of Rome and of the Romanesque.
See also: Pointed arch, Rise
Rules that use the word
The sail vault over a square bay. Cover a square bay with a hemisphere whose diameter is the bay’s diagonal, cut off by the four vertical planes of its sides; the cut edges are then the four semicircular arches of the bay.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters The Arch, The Islamic World.
Nearby in the glossary
Screens passage · Scroll · Segmental pediment · Seked · Semidome · Şerefe · Serliana · Setback