Caryatid is the name given to an architectural column which takes the form of a standing female figure.
The first examples come from ancient Greek architecture and indeed, the most celebrated examples are found in the south porch of the Erechtheion on the acropolis of Athens.
Five of the six originals are now in the city's Acropolis Museum. The sixth was stolen by Lord Elgin (who served as Great Britain’s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the nineteenth century) and remains until now in the British Museum in London.
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