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- In architecture, a structure, round or
- polygonal in plan, erected vertically as a
- support for some part of a building. Cretan
- paintings reveal the existence of wooden
- columns in Aegean architecture, about 1500
- BC. The Hittites, Assyrians, and Egyptians
- also used wooden columns, and they are a
- feature of the monumental architecture of
- China and Japan. In classical architecture
- there are five principal types of column; see
- order.
-