Buttress

[1] Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (sideways) forces arising out of inadequately braced roof structures.

The term counterfort can be synonymous with buttress[2] and is often used when referring to dams, retaining walls and other structures holding back earth.

Early examples of buttresses are found on the Eanna Temple (ancient Uruk), dating to as early as the 4th millennium BC.

[citation needed] In addition to flying and ordinary buttresses, brick and masonry buttresses that support wall corners can be classified according to their ground plan.

[3][4] The gallery below shows top-down views of various types of buttress (dark grey) supporting the corner wall of a structure (light grey).