dromos

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dromos.
1. Long, narrow passage, partly open and partly within a mound, giving access to Aegean chamber- or tholos-tombs.

2. Straight, formal entrance-avenue of great magnificence, lined on each side by columns, sphinxes, statues, obelisks, etc., as existed in the Serapeion (Temple of Serapis) at Delos (C1 bc), and especially at the huge Isaeum Campense (Temple of Isis), Rome (ad C1–C4). This long axial formal plan leading to a Holy of Holies and associated with courts, porticoes, and colonnades got its name from a Greek race-course. A dromic or dromical church was a term for an Eastern basilican church, the plan of which resembled the Greek dromos arrangement of Isaea.

3. Open space with room to move freely, such as a forecourt.

Bibliography

J. Curl (1950);
Dinsmoor (1950);
Roullet (1972)