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pronaos

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The inner area of the portico of a Greek or Roman temple, leading to the cella.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In architecture: An open vestibule or portico in front of the naos or cella of a temple. See naos, 2.
  • noun Same as narthex, 1.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Arch.) The porch or vestibule of a temple.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun architecture The inner area of the portico of a Greek or Roman temple

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek pronāos, before a temple, pronaos : pro-, before; see pro– + Greek dialectal nāos, temple.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek πρόναος ("vestibule of a church").

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Examples

  • Along the centre of three of the interior walls of the pronaos is a compartment of sculpture, the other parts of the walls being quite bare; a peculiarity I saw no where else.

    Travels in Nubia 2004

  • The pronaos, which is entered from the portico by a large gate, is eighteen paces square, and contains two rows, three in each, of immense columns, or rather props, (for they are without capitals,) measuring five feet by seven in the plan.

    Travels in Nubia 2004

  • On each side of the narrow apartment behind the pronaos is a small gate, opening into the passage above mentioned; opposite to one of these gates is an avenue leading down to the river, and on the outside of the other are two long inscriptions; one of which is in hieroglyphics, and the other, immediately below it, and, apparently, by the same hand, in the common Egyptian character, like that on the rolls of papyrus.

    Travels in Nubia 2004

  • Bruno Schmitz 'design shows a rich mosaic base supporting an Ionic portico, from the middle of which a six column Corinthian "pronaos" projects, which no doubt would have produced a magnificent effect in the streets of Rome.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 460, October 25, 1884 Various

  • There is a well paved terrace on the top of the cella; and the Greeks had built a cupola over the pronaos.

    Travels in Nubia 2004

  • The temple of Derr is entirely hewn out of the sand-stone rock, with its pronaos, sekos or cella, and adyton.

    Travels in Nubia 2004

  • The cella is an oblong square; its walls are covered with hieroglyphics and sculptures: on one side of it is a dark apartment, opening into the pronaos, and on the other side is a staircase leading up to the top of the temple: below the staircase are several small rooms.

    Travels in Nubia 2004

  • The whole fabric appears to be of the remotest antiquity; and to have been imitated by the more modern architects of Egypt; for the propylon, and the pronaos with its colossal statues, are found at Gorne, on a larger scale; the two statues in advance of the propylon, are the miniatures of those in front of the Memnonium; and the sphinxes are seen at Karnac.

    Travels in Nubia 2004

  • Behind the propylon is the pronaos, with two columns in front, similar to those of the temple of Dakke.

    Travels in Nubia 2004

  • There are no sculptures of any kind, either on the propylon, or in the pronaos, except on the back wall of the latter, or rather on the front wall of the cella, where the two-headed

    Travels in Nubia 2004

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