Il Viaggio di Marco a Italia

Rome: The Colliseum

Speaking of things too big to take pictures of, how about a 2000 year old stadium that can seat 60,000? The Colliseum is 50 meters tall and could be filled or emptied in a matter of minutes. Teams of sailors would hoist custom sails over the whole thing to provide shade for the occupants. The arena floor could be flooded for mock sea battles.

It was finished in 80AD and the inaugural games lasted 100 days. Over 5000 animals and countless slaves were killed. In a subsequent series of games, 9000 gladiators fought to the death.

In the early days of the games, criminals sentenced to death were thrown into the arena with starved lions and such. For good measure, they typically threw in a few Christians as well- until AD312, when Emperor Constantine converted Rome to Christianity.

It all kind of makes Rome seem a bit less civilized...

Anyway, here are my attempts at capturing the Colliseum:



The Northern Wall: original except for the ends that were added to help keep it up. Earthquakes and such knocked down the southern side.


The Outer Corridor: There were actually three of them.


The View From The Top


Proof I Was There.


The Area Floor: the decking is missing. Underneath were tunnels, and cages that could be raised up into the arena.


Inside Right
Picture it finished. Everything was white marble up to 10 feet high and wwhite plaster after that. It was all painted with frescos and such and decorated elaborately. All of the floors were marble as were the seats. All the marble was looted in during the 1400-1700s to be used in other buildings around Rome.
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