Middle Eastern Domes

Domes have roofed buildings in the Middle East for thousands of years. Where long, straight timber was scarce, masonry domes and vaults offered a way to span rooms using only earth, brick or stone. The form runs from small domed houses, cisterns and ice houses in the countryside to the great tiled domes of Islamic monuments.

Materials

The earliest Middle Eastern domes were built of mud brick, followed by baked brick and stone. Mud-brick and baked-brick domes were sometimes covered with ceramic tiles to protect them from rain and snow. In Syria, corbelled domes were made from a spiral of earth bricks set in earth mortar, and studies suggest these behave more like continuous shells than stacked rings.

Vernacular domes in Iran

Wood was scarce on the Iranian plateau, so domes were an important part of ordinary building throughout Persian history. Domed water cisterns and ice houses remain common in the Iranian countryside. In cities such as Yazd, earth vaults and domes roof houses and bazaars, combined with windcatchers and courtyards to manage heat.

Monumental domes

The Sasanian Empire built the first large-scale domes in Iran. Later builders developed taller and more complex domes, including double-shell domes, in which a high outer dome sits over a lower inner one. The Dome of Soltaniyeh, about 50 m (164 ft) tall and 25 m (82 ft) in diameter, is regarded as one of the largest masonry domes ever built. Squinches and muqarnas make the transition from square rooms to circular domes, and Persian domes are known for exteriors covered in coloured glazed tile.

By the end of the 7th century, the dome had become a symbol of Islamic architecture, and it remains central to mosque design across the region.

Climate performance

Thick masonry domes store heat and moderate indoor temperatures. A curved roof is also partly shaded at any time of day, and its height lets warm air rise away from occupants. These qualities, together with the absence of timber, explain the dome's long use in hot, dry regions.

Today

Concrete flat roofs dominate new construction across much of the region, but domes remain common on religious buildings and are used in some contemporary earth and low-energy architecture.