temple was a simple rectangular shrine with protruding side walls (antae), forming a small porch. Until the 8th century BCE, there were also apsidal structures with more or less semi-circular back walls, but the rectangular type prevailed. By adding columns to this small basic structure, the Greeks triggered the development and variety of their temple architecture. The Temple of Isthmia, built in 690–650 BCE was perhaps the first true Archaic temple. Its size, colonnade, and roof made it different from then-contemporary buildings. Wooden architecture: Early Archaic The first temples were mostly mud, brick, and marble structures on stone foundations. The columns and superstructure (entablature) were wooden, door openings and were protected with wooden planks. The mud brick walls were often reinforced by wooden posts, in a type of half-timbered technique. The elements of this simple and clearly structured wooden architecture produced all the important design principles that were to determine the development of Greek temples for centuries. Near the end of the 7th century BCE, the dimensions of these simple structures were increased considerably. Temple C at Thermos is the first of the , temples with a length of . Since it was not technically possible to roof broad spaces at that time, these temples remained very narrow, at 6 to 10 metres in width. To stress the importance of the cult statue and the building holding it, the was equipped with a canopy, supported by columns. The resulting set of colonnade surrounding the temple on all sides (the peristasis) was exclusively used for temples in Greek architecture. The combination of the temple with colonnades (ptera) on all sides posed a new aesthetic challenge for the architects and patrons: the structures had to be built to be viewed from all directions. This led to the development of the peripteros, with a frontal pronaos (porch), mirrored by a similar arrangement at the back of the building, the opisthodomos, which became necessary for entirely aesthetic reasons. Introduction of stone architecture: Archaic and Classical After the reintroduction of stone architecture, the essential elements and forms of each temple, such as the number of columns and of column rows, underwent constant change throughout Greek antiquity. In the 6th century BCE, Ionian Samos developed the double-colonnaded dipteros as an alternative to the single . This idea was later copied in Didyma, Ephesos and Athens. Between the 6th and the late 4th century BCE, innumerable temples