page_title: Ogive
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Ogive / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: Worcester Cathedral, England - Gothic vault
context_page_description: An ogive is the roundly tapered end of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object. Ogive curves and surfaces are used in engineering, architecture and woodworking.
context_section_description: One of the defining characteristics of Gothic architecture is the pointed arch. 
  the pointed  arch may have originated as in Sitamarhi caves in 3rd century BCE. The free-standing temple of Trivikrama at Ter in Maharashtra India dated to Satavahana period also contains ogive arch but it is constructed using principles of corbel.
  Archaeological excavation conducted by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at Kausambi revealed a palace with its foundations going back to 8th century BCE until 2nd century CE and built in six phases. The last phase dated to 1st–2nd century CE, featured an extensive structure which features four centered pointed arches which were used to span narrow passageways and segmental arches for wider areas. Pointed arches as load bearing function were also employed in Gandhara. Two pointed arch vault system was built inside the Bhitargaon temple as noted by Alexander Cunningham, which is dated to early Gupta period of 4th–5th century CE. Pointed arches also appeared in Mahabodhi temple with relieving arches and vaults between 6–7th century CE.
  The pointed arch as an architectonic principle in the Middle East, is said by several scholars to have first been established in Islamic architecture during the Abbasid Caliphate in the middle of the 8th century CE, and in Gothic architecture in the 11th century CE. Some scholars have refused to accept Indian origin of pointed arch including Hill (1993), some scholars have argued that pointed arches were used in the Near East in pre-Islamic architecture, but others have stated that these arches were, in fact, parabolic and not pointed arches.
  In Gothic architecture, ogives are the intersecting transverse ribs of arches which establish the surface of a Gothic vault. An ogive or ogival arch is a pointed, "Gothic" arch, drawn with compasses as outlined above, or with arcs of an ellipse as described. A very narrow, steeply pointed ogive arch is sometimes called a "lancet arch". The most common form is an equilateral arch, where the radius is the same as the width. In the later Flamboyant Gothic style, an "ogee arch", an arch with a pointed head, like S-shaped curves, became prevalent.
caption: Ogival curves in the ribs of Gothic vaulting at Worcester Cathedral UK
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