Due to the natural conditions of their surroundings, the Greeks put little emphasis on the external format of their architectural style. The lack of floods, drought, and extreme temperatures allowed the main work and design to be directed to the interi or. Two very important resources were also available to the Greeks where others would have had to travel great distances to collect. These resources were wool and stone. Wool to clothe people, and the stone to build their grand structures. Early Greece wa s composed mostly of porous limestone and was later replaced by marble because of it's strength.

It is said that Greece is where the personality of individual architects first becomes pronounced and clear (Lawrence 77). They knew and discussed what they were about and what their feelings were on certain design. The theory "unity through variety" w as applied to their buildings. The quality of symmetry was what they were looking for in "Properly agreeing members of work." They studied proportions and mathematical relations between dimensions. Their inspiration was to find an equality of ratios, or a common dividing module (78).

Temples had always been the top priority of the Greeks. These were usually the largest buildings built, besides cathedrals, which were in general built upwards high into the sky. Soon monuments became very popular in national religious centers. Beauti ful circular temples involving Corinthian design also became widespread throughout Greece. After time the motive for building moved from practical to visual. Everything was being built for beauty, not so much human use (80).

Archaic Period (776-479)

This was the formative period. Greece, Ionic Cities, New colonies, Italy and Sicily, were the production leaders during this period. This was the formative period because most of the emerging cities and colonies built the most. Most of these colonies w ere in Ionia and Dora. The new Ionic colonies buildings took on slender, delicate, and graceful qualities. The Doric new buildings had qualities of heaviness and also had bold full curves. Mostly public monuments were taken into consideration within the already standing cities such as Athens. (Stokstad 131-35).

Central Period (461-335)

This was known as the awakening period. Since peace was reached from the Persian wars wonderful Greek art raised after this. Rebuilding of destroyed monuments helped to build the maturity of these buildings. In the process of rebuilding, drama grew and so the architectural buildings that would serve for this purpose were also erected. With this civic revival, temple building continued to get bigger. In architecture, temples remained to be a big priority. In cities like Olympia and Delus added monuments of their rulers and the circular temples became a lot more popular. (Stokstad 136-40).

Hellenistic Period (334-323)

With the help of Alexander's conquering, the Greek art was able too expand and influence many more cities. Many cities took on the modern metropolis model of today. Many of the ones that took on this different aspect had museums, libraries, parks and t he city's harbor. Architecturally, Subtle curves became richer and bolder. Strong Corinthian ideas became the basis for many of the columns put out during this period. The arches and barrel vaults became greater and larger. Theoretical ideas and mathemati cal formulation made the Greek system immutable. Rome also became its most faithful pupil. (Stokstad 141-47).