Cornice

A cornice is the uppermost horizontal projecting element that crowns a wall, entablature or roofline, marking the transition from wall to roof or capping a facade. In classical architecture it forms the topmost of the three principal divisions of the entablature, sitting above the frieze and architrave, and is typically enriched with mouldings such as dentils, small tooth-like blocks, or modillions, scroll-shaped brackets. Beyond its decorative role in articulating a building's silhouette and scale, the cornice performs a genuine structural-protective function: its projection throws rainwater clear of the wall face, functioning much like an eave or gutter but rendered as a finished architectural feature rather than a purely utilitarian one. The form has deep roots in ancient Egyptian architecture, where the curved cavetto cornice is thought to derive from the profile of bundled reeds used in earlier construction, and this shape was carried forward into Persian and eventually Greek and Roman practice, where it was codified within the classical orders. In residential and vernacular building the cornice persists in simplified forms, generally classed as box, close or open cornices depending on how far the roof structure projects beyond the wall plane.