ALA

(Lat. ala, a wing.) Tn Architecture, a term used by the English, more especially, to signify the side subdivisions in a church, usually separated from the nave, or centre division, by pillars or columns; but among different nations it bears different significations as applied to architecture. Strabo informs us, that among the Bgypi of the t. mple were the two walls that hv closed the two sides of the pronaos, and which were of the same height as the temple itself. The walls, bo observes, from above ground, were a little farther apart than the foundations of the temple, but, as they rose, were built With an inclination towards each other. The right understanding, however, of this pa age is attended wilh difficulty, ems to have puzzled Pocock no le than ourselves. The Greek al re the colonnades which surrounded the coll of the temple, the monopleros temple ihi' only species which had columns without an interior(lothem) wall. The peripteral had one tier of columns round dipteral two. and the psendoor ■ invented, was that in which the ala was single, but occupied the sax dipteral, though one of (he tiers of columns was left out; thus, by metaphor, the columns were called the ale, or wings, of the temple. This term is also applied lo the sides of a building which are gubordinme principal, and central division, and are vulgarly rings. [s. 41]