The ancient Greeks invented three main architectural column styles - Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The Doric style is the simplest with plain columns and no base. The Ionic style is more decorative with fluted columns and scrolls on the capital. The most decorative is the Corinthian style which has columns with flutes and leaves and flowers beneath the capital. Famous examples that still stand include the Parthenon in Athens (Doric), the Temple of Athena Nike (Ionic), and buildings inspired by these styles today use neoclassical elements.

2.  The ancient Greeks invented three types of columns.
 The Doric style is the most plain.
 DESCRIPTION: Of the three columns found in Greece,
Doric columns are the simplest. They have a capital
(the top, or crown) made of a circle topped by a square.
The shaft (the tall part of the column) is plain and has
20 sides. There is no base in the Doric order. The Doric
order is very plain, but powerful-looking in its design.
Doric, like most Greek styles, works well horizontally
on buildings, that's why it was so good with the long
rectangular buildings made by the Greeks. The area
above the column, called the frieze [pronounced
"freeze"], had simple patterns. Above the columns are
the metopes and triglyphs. The metope [pronounced
"met-o-pee"] is a plain, smooth stone section between
triglyphs. Sometimes the metopes had statues of heroes
or gods on them. The triglyphs are a pattern of 3
vertical lines between the metopes.

3. There are many examples of ancient Doric buildings.
Perhaps the most famous one is the Parthenon in Athens,
which is probably the most famous and most studied
building on Earth. Buildings built even now borrow some
parts of the Doric order.
The Hephaisteion, in Athens, is another good
example of the Doric order. In this picture, you can
clearly see the parts of the Doric order described
above and shown in the illustration to the left.

4.  The Ionic design is famous for its scrolls.
 DESCRIPTION: Ionic shafts were taller than Doric
ones. This makes the columns look slender. They
also had flutes, which are lines carved into them
from top to bottom. The shafts also had a special
characteristic: entasis, which is a little bulge in the
columns make the columns look straight, even at a
distance [because since you would see the building
from eye level, the shafts would appear to get
narrower as they rise, so this bulge makes up for
that - so it looks straight to your eye but it really
isn't !] . The frieze is plain. The bases were large and
looked like a set of stacked rings. Ionic capitals
consist of a scrolls above the shaft. The Ionic style is
a little more decorative than the Doric

5. The Temple of Athena Nike in Athens, shown above, is
one of the most famous Ionic buildings in the world. It is
located on the Acropolis, very close to the Parthenon
(shown in the Doric section above).

6.  The Corinthian style is quite fancy.
DESCRIPTION: The Corinthian order is
the most decorative and is usually the one
most modern people like best. Corinthian
also uses entasis to make the shafts look
straight. The Corinthian capitals have
flowers and leaves below a small scroll.
The shaft has flutes and the base is like the
Ionian. Unlike the Doric and Ionian
cornices, which are at a slant, the
Corinthian roofs are flat.

7. The Temple of the Sybil in Rome is a
good example of the Corinthian
order. The Romans used the
Corinthian order much more than
did the Greeks.
This building is the Charlotte City Hall.
City Hall has pairs of Corinthian columns
and the typical flat Corinthian roof. The
coumns have entasis. If you go see City Hall
in person, the shafts will look straight to
your eye, but they aren't! Designs like this,
which are inspired by ancient buildings, are
know as neoclassical.

8.  If you had lived in any ancient Greek city-state,
even in Sparta, you would have seen these 3
designs all over town.
 Today, these column designs are used on
buildings all over the world
 Source:
http://www.cmhpf.org/kids/dictionary/Clas
sicalOrders.html

9.  The Parthenon, or the Temple of
Athena was built between 447 and
438 BC in the Doric style under the
leadership of Pericles. The
Acropolis had been the site of an
older temple and other monuments
which had been destroyed by the
Persians when the people of
Athens evacuated the city. When
the Persians were defeated
columns from the older buildings
were used in the construction of
the Acropolis walls as a reminder
of what Athens had suffered. The
Parthenon was designed by the
architects Ictinos and Callicrates,
built of local marble from Mount
Pendeli and build by a large
number of sculpturers, masons,
painters and other craftsmen.

10.  The columns of the Parthenon supported a marble beam to which
were attached the metopes, high relief sculptures of different subjects
on each side. The eastern side of the building was a battle between the
Olympian Gods and the giants. On the west are the Greeks battling the
Amazons. On the north the scenes seem to be from the fall of Troy. On
the south are battles between men and the centaurs. The triangle
sections of the building were the pediments and contained about 50
large statues which were carved and then hoisted up. According to
Pausanias, the east pediment showed the birth of Athena, the west
showed the contest between Athena and Poseidon over who would
rule Athens and Attika. The statues were originally painted, but by the
time western Europeans had arrived the paint was long gone and for
many years they believed that this was their normal state. In fact the
idea of the Greeks having painted their statues seemed almost like
sacrilege to the Europeans. The Parthenon frieze by Phideas went
around the whole building was also carved in relief and is believed to
show the sacrifice of the daughters of Erechtheus, one of the founding
myths of Athens and the subject of a lost play by Euripides. The main
feature of the Parthenon was the giant statue of Athena which was
inside and has since disappeared. There were several other buildings
on the Acropolis. The propylaea was the entranceway. To the right
was the small temple of Athena Nike and to the left was the
Erechthion and the famous porch of the maidens.

11.  The Parthenon and the other buildings of the Acropolis remained intact through the Roman
conquests, when Athens was considered the cultural capital for the whole empire. The emperor
Augustus built a small temple in front of the Parthenon and the Emperor Hadrian financed a
building program said to be as ambitious as that of Pericles. When the Emperor Constantine
declared Christianity as the official religion of the empire in the fourth century Athens was
considered pagan and in 529 the philosophy schools were closed, putting an end to the traditions
of classical Athens. When Alaric the Goth invaded the empire he spared Athens the plundering
and devastation that other cities in his path had experienced. According to the legend, he took the
sun flashing on the bronze shield of the statue of Athena as a sign from God. In the 6th Century
the Parthenon was converted to a Christian church and the east pediment torn down and many of
its sculptures defaced. When the crusaders who destroyed Constantinople occupied Athens they
began a period of western rule and the Parthenon became the Roman Catholic Church of Notre
Dame. Finally during the Turkish occupation it was converted into a mosque and a minaret was
built on the top. Except for the statue of Athena, the statues of the east pediment and the treasures
and statues in the interior, the building was still completely intact.

12.  That changed on September 26 1687 when the Parthenon, which was being used by the
Turks as a gunpowder magazine after the previous facility, the Propelea had been
destroyed when struck by lightning, was hit by a cannon from the Venetians who were
laying siege to the Acropolis. The whole building exploded, the roof blown off, sections of
columns blown down and many of the sculptures were destroyed. When the Turks
surrendered, the Venetian general Morosini decided to take back to Venice the surviving
sculptures from the west pediment but in the effort the cables broke and they all
shattered. He left on the Acropolis the ruins of the Parthenon with piles of marble from
the statues and the building which were taken and used as building material or ground
into lime. After the Venetians left more of the Parthenon was torn town to be used as
building materials and even the lead core which held the columns together was extracted,
melted down and used for bullets. By the eighteenth century travelers from western
Europe were buying sculpture which increased their value enough so they would not be
used for lime. The Turks were happy to sell pieces of ancient buildings and statues though
they could not understand why anyone would want them. These pieces made their way
back to Europe. Most have disappeared but some of turned up in museums, private
collections and in people's gardens

13. Parthenon Source:
http://www.athensguide.com/elginmarbles/parthenon.html