stylobate

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin stylobata, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek στυλοβάτης (stulobátēs), from στῦλος (stûlos, “pillar”) + βαίνω (baínō, “to go, to walk”).

noun

1. (Classical Greek architecture) The top step of the crepidoma, i.e. the platform upon which the superstructure of the building is erected.
   The bases of the columns and the plinths below them appear to be standing on pedestals, but this is only an illusion, for the stylobate [translating Sockel] has been cut through in five places, and through each gap five steps lead up between the columns. 1962, JW Goethe, translated by WH Auden and Elizabeth Mayer, Italian Journey, Penguin, published 1970, page 121