Photo: Arild Vรฅgen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Architecture question
How does a pendentive dome solve a building problem?
Hagia Sophia
built 537
Istanbul, Turkey
Byzantine architecture, the pendentive dome
Look closer
The huge dome sits above a square room, not a round one. Curved triangular sections called pendentives, tucked into the corners, make that transition possible.