Editing Entasis (section)

==Examples==
[[File:Gedling Church Steeple - geograph.org.uk - 510263.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Early fourteenth-century steeple of All Hallows' parish church, [[Gedling]], Nottinghamshire, England, showing entasis of the spire]]
[[Image:Shitennoji06s3200.jpg|thumb|Entasis columns at [[Shitennō-ji]], Japan]]
Examples of this design principle may be found in cultures throughout the world, from ancient times to contemporary architecture. The first use of entasis is probably in the Later Temple of Aphaia at [[Aigina]], in the 490s BC.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thompson |first1=Peter |title=The origins of entasis |url=https://www-users.york.ac.uk/~pt2/SV22171.pdf |website=University of York}}</ref>

It may be observed among Classical period [[Architecture of Ancient Greece|Greek]] column designs, for example, in the [[Doric order]] temples in [[Segesta]], [[Selinus]], [[Agrigento]], and [[Paestum]].

It was used less frequently in [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] period architecture.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}} The Roman temples built during these periods were sometimes higher than those of the Greeks, with longer and thinner columns.

Chinese carpenters of the [[Song Dynasty]] followed designs in the AD 1103 [[Yingzao Fashi]] (Treatise on Architectural Methods or State Building Standards) that specified straight columns or those with an entasis on the upper third of the shaft.<ref>Liang, Sicheng, and Wilma Fairbank, ed. A pictorial history of Chinese architecture: a study of the development of its structural system and the evolution of its types. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1984. 17.</ref>

Noted architects, such as the [[Renaissance architecture|Renaissance]] master [[Andrea Palladio]], also used entasis in the designs of their buildings.

Entasis was often a feature of [[Inca]] walls and doorways to counteract the optical illusion that would make the openings appear narrower in their middles.<ref>Protzen, Jean-Pierre. "Inca Architecture" in ''The Inca World'', Laura Laurencich Minelli (ed). University of Oklahoma Press, 2000, pp. 196–197.</ref>