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The discharging or relieving arch, built above the architrave or lintel to take off the weight of the superstructure.

The relieving arch as used in Egypt, in the pyramid of Cheops; and in Saxon architecture, where it was built with Roman bricks or tiles, or consisted of two sloping slabs of stone.

Long before this, however, and already in the 2nd century A.D. in Syria, this relieving arch had been moulded and decorated, with the result of emphasizing it as a new architectural feature.

The square, heavy door was usually contrived below a relieving arch, whose archivolt was richly charged with sculptured and painted ornaments; the twin windows were supported by a pied-droit or on small columns.

Changes of direction on pipes shall be made with "Y"-branches, both above and below the ground, and where such pipes pass through a new foundation-wall a relieving arch shall be built over it, with a 2-inch space on either side of the pipe.