That’s the Temple of Artemis, from an old series I was reading by Jacques Martin:
https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-708-BD-Orion-Martin.html
His many series wade in to ancient and historical peoples, times, and events. Although his handling of plot and character can be pretty outdated and even bumbling, he nevertheless produces consistently interesting visuals, ones which often lead me to asking questions, as above.
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/image/m/martin_jacq/martin_jacques_orion_1990.jpg
I guess I’d just assumed since kid-dom that these temples were made entirely of marble or similar material, hence my puzzlement seeing the image above. Was this just neglect / incompetence by Martin? On the contrary, it seems a lot more technical and correct than I realised. Indeed, a little bit of searching suggests that such roofs were commonly made of wooden rafters, an underlayer sheathing, and then interlocking terracotta tiles.
Something like this, I guess:
https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S2352409X2300295X-gr10.jpg
With the tiles usually looking like this, perhaps:
https://www.iko.com/na/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/imbrex-tegula-roof-system.webp
I don’t know… maybe some titanically-important temples were attempted in all marble. The Acropolis, perhaps? The problem as I understand it though is that holding up all that weight was incredibly challenging even with an open budget. Or something like that.
