Archaeologist: How did the Parthenon' s stonemasons manage to carve columns that all bulged outward in the center in precisely the same way? One hypothesis is suggested by the discovery of a scale drawing of a column etched into the stone of a Greek temple at Didyma. The drawing is a profile view of a column surrounded by a grid, which makes it possible to determine the correct width at every height of the column. The stonemasons who carved the Parthenon' s columns may have relied on a drawing like the one at Didyma.
The statement 'Scale drawings were commonly used in many types of construction in ancient Greece' adds the most support for the archaeologist's hypothesis.