The Great Pyramids at Giza were the largest structures in the world for almost two thousand years from their construction in roughly 2500 BCE. Remarkably, the pyramids were built for a singular, one-time purpose as the tombs of Pharaohs and their families. The Pyramids were built away from other settlements, and were intended as massive monuments to the Pharaohs' power.

One of the most important features of any mosque, a Muslim place of worship, is the space to broadcast the regular call to prayer. In the Middle Ages particularly, this was achieved through building a thin, tall tower at one corner of the mosque. This high tower was called a "minaret" and was often the tallest building in a medieval Islamic society.

An onion dome is a dome on top of a drum which is bulbous and larger than the structure it sits on, and comes to a point with a cross on it. Onion domes are the chief feature in Russian church architecture, adorning cathedrals in Russian Orthodox cultures. Onion domes are featured prominently in St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow and are a symbol of Russian culture.

Flying buttresses are ornate supports that stick outside the walls of Gothic church architecture, particularly cathedrals. Buttresses were necessary to keep the new, massive stone cathedrals of the middle ages standing. While they were originally functional, church builders made them reflect and enhance the design of their buildings.

An arch is able to remain in its appropriate position because of the way that pressure is placed throughout the entire arch. Pressure can only be appropriately distributed because of the placement of the keystone. The keystone is the central stone in an arch, which is shaped in order to push the weight down through every piece of stone.

Gothic architecture, particularly in the building of churches and cathedrals, featured a number of ornate features. One of the most peculiar was the use of gargoyles, small stone figures of grotesque characters that were placed on the sides of buildings. These figures would often be placed between sculptures of saints and kings, and were viewed as protective features. Some gargoyles also functioned as drainage pipes (through holes in their mouths).

Tuscan is a Roman architectural order and Composite is a Roman combination of orders. Athenian and Monumental are not architectural orders, though they may be used to describe architecture. The three orders are Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

The Italian architect Andrea Palladio was well known for his own buildings in his native Venice, but gained greater fame for the work of architectural theory he composed in 1570, The Four Books of Architecture. Drawing on Greek and Roman influences, Palladio called for symmetry, domes, columns, and grand spaces. Each of these elements would become hallmarks of neoclassical architecture during the eighteenth century.

Mannerism was mainly in the sixteenth century, and was not as strong in movement or emotion. Impressionism was a nineteenth century movement focusing on small brush strokes and an emphasis on openness and light in the overall composition. Gothic art is a Medieval art style, which came before the Renaissance. Pre-modern is not an art style. Baroque style is typically used to describe Versailles and Caravaggio.

Fallingwater is generally considered Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, as the residence was constructed above and incorporated a waterfall. The residence, built in 1939, blended the interior and exterior of the building into Wright's perfect distillation of his "organic" philosophy of architecture. The property remained a residence for many years, but became a protected site in the mid-1960s.