ries of horizontal courses using a certain herringbone pattern, which would bond together, each course carrying its own weight and supporting the next. There was also the question of the weight of the dome. The drum on to which the dome was to be built was already in place; therefore building the dome out of concrete (in the manner of the Pantheon in Rome) was out of the question, as the weight would crush the existing dome. As a result the dome was built with ribs and the lightest possible infill and an outer and inner shell. Such a solution could have only been reached through the intense study of classical ruins. For thousands of years no one ha
             ...