Table-based Chronology

Year, monthLocationProject nameAuthorSignificance
-2700 to -2200EgyptPyramids of the Old KingdomIconic use of sloping vertical surface and building mass divided by diagonals
-2052Deir el-Bahari, EgyptFunerary Temple of MentuhotepSingle ramp
-1511 to -1480Deir el-Bahari, EgyptHatshepsut Mortuary TempleQueen Hatshepsut and SenmutDouble ramp
-1279 to -1213Luxor, EgyptTemple of Amun-Mut-KhonsuStarted by Amenhotep III, but the important axis-shifted additions by Ramses IIAxial rotation
-664 to -300Nuri, SudanPyramids by Kings of KushPyramidal forms
-585GreeceGeometryThalesThales, one of the seven Wise Men of Greece, brings the geometry of Egypt to Greece
-532Greek city of Croton, ItalyGeometryPythagorasHis studies of geometry were a small part of a grand view of the world and the cosmos, one in which mathematics defined the basic order of all things. Everything, he said is defined by numbers. (Solomon 1996)
-400 to -300Mero in Ancient Nubia, SudanPyramids The number of pyramids in ancient Nubia 223, were double the number of pyramids of its neighbor Egypt.
-440EgyptPyramidsHerodotusHerodotus see and writes about th pyramids in Egypt
-380GreeceThe Meno is writtenPlatoSocrates: And from what line do you get this figure?
Boy: From this.
Socrates: That is, from the line which extends from corner to corner of the figure of four feet?
Boy: Yes.
Socrates: And that is the line which the learned call the diagonal. And if this is the proper name, then you, Meno's slave, are prepared to affirm that the double space is the square of the diagonal?
Boy: Certainly, Socrates.
-300Athens Greece, then Alexandria, EgyptThe ElementsEuclidThe Elements which presented in thirteen books all that was known of geometry and mathematics at the time. Plane geometry is presented in the first six books which have served ever since as the basis for most beginning books on the subject. Among the various subjects covered in the other books is that of solid geometry and the Platonic solids — the five regular polyhedra.
While the main application of perspective is in art, it is an optical phenomenon and thus has its principal root not in art but in geometrical optics.
-300 C.Athens Greece, then Alexandria, EgyptOpticaEuclidThe first text on geometrical optics, in which are defined the terms visual ray and visual cone.
-290 to -280Alexandria, EgyptPharos, the LighthousePharos was regarded as one of The Seven Wonders of The ancient World, this Lighthouse of Alexandria was the tallest building on earth, a stone shaft faced in white marble. Of interest here is the fact that it was built on a square base then changed plan profile to an octagon then a circle. An image of the lighthouse was imprinted on Roman coins.
-200Baalbeck, Syria in present-day LebanonForecourt at Temple of JupiterEarliest known use of the hexagon in a building complex.
-100Athens, GreeceTower of the WindsBelieved to be the first octagonal building.