Colosseum
The Flavian amphitheatre of ancient Rome, visitable with the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
The Colosseum, known in antiquity as the Flavian Amphitheatre, was begun under the emperor Vespasian around AD 72 and inaugurated by his son Titus in AD 80. Built of travertine, tuff and brick-faced concrete on the site of a lake in Nero's Golden House, it seated tens of thousands of spectators for gladiatorial combat, animal hunts and public spectacles. Its four storeys of superimposed Doric, Ionic and Corinthian arcades, and the network of corridors and stairways behind them, set the pattern for amphitheatres across the Roman world.
The building fell out of use in late antiquity, served as a quarry in the Middle Ages and was consolidated from the nineteenth century onwards. It is now the centrepiece of the Parco archeologico del Colosseo, which also administers the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill and the Domus Aurea. Visitors follow a route through the arcades and the seating tiers, and separately ticketed itineraries reach the reconstructed arena floor, the underground hypogeum where animals and scenery were held, and the upper levels.
Highlights
- Tiered arcades of travertine forming the largest surviving Roman amphitheatre
- The hypogeum, the underground network of cells, lifts and passages
- Reconstructed arena floor reached on a separately ticketed itinerary
- Combined access to the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
