Covered Corridor
This stately covered corridor links Horyuji Temple’s Bell Tower on the east, the Great Lecture Hall in the center, and Sutra Repository on the west. The pagoda and Main Hall used to be surrounded by a corridor. The current form of the corridor dates back to 990.
Many of the pillars in the temple complex bulge slightly in the middle, a feature known as entasis that historians suggest can be traced back to the influence of ancient Greece.
The east side of the corridor is longer than the west. Historians think that was an attempt to achieve symmetry with the temple’s innovative design, which moved the five-storied pagoda from its traditionally central position to the west, aligned horizontally with the Main Hall.