# How Come the Ancient Greeks Never Invented the Arch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-ancient-greeks-never-invented-the-arch/499776 "2009-06-15T00:00:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-ancient-greeks-never-invented-the-arch/499776/41 "2020-02-27T17:15:15Z")
> [@ThisOneGuy](#): > > The Egyptians did use arches: [File:Egyptian vignettes luxor.jpg - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Egyptian_vignettes_luxor.jpg) (example from the Ramessuem, so way older than the Parthenon). Are those not corbels, rather than true arches? ETA: no, they look like the real deal. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-ancient-greeks-never-invented-the-arch/499776/42 "2020-02-28T02:37:41Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Are those not corbels, rather than true arches? > > ETA: no, they look like the real deal. I’m trying to figure out if they’re rock or mud brick. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-ancient-greeks-never-invented-the-arch/499776/43 "2020-02-28T05:00:50Z")
I’d like to float the theory that the big breakthrough wasn’t the arch, it was the idea of erecting (and then removing) the falsework that allowed large arches to be built. That doesn’t seem like a concept the Greeks _couldn’t_ have come up with—but things do get invented that seem pretty obvious in hindsight. Think how long we went without wheels on suitcases. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-ancient-greeks-never-invented-the-arch/499776/44 "2020-02-28T07:24:30Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > That doesn’t seem like a concept the Greeks _couldn’t_ have come up with—but things do get invented that seem pretty obvious in hindsight. Think how long we went without wheels on suitcases. The first wheeled suitcase was sold in 1970. But a wheeled luggage trunk was patented in 1889. Before then, slaves did the schlepping. I await anti-gravity duffels. ---
**Author:** ![ThisOneGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@ThisOneGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisOneGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-ancient-greeks-never-invented-the-arch/499776/45 "2020-02-28T20:31:36Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I’m trying to figure out if they’re rock or mud brick. They look like mud brick in person. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-ancient-greeks-never-invented-the-arch/499776/46 "2020-02-28T21:55:23Z")
I was browsing for pictures of the Parthenon, and it appears from one of the “reconstruction” pictures that the lintel spans (like Luxor Temple) were rather short. The picture seems to suggest the large internal area or the parthenon still used wood spans for the roof. I assume with an arched internal roof, absent centuries of engineering experimentation they would have had to have absolutely massive buttresses on the sides and that probably would not have satisfied their aesthetic sense the way those columns did. . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-the-ancient-greeks-never-invented-the-arch/499776.md?page=2)