Colosseum – Thousand-years history witness

Like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Colosseum is a must-visit when in Rome. This nearly two-thousand-year-old building is also one of the 7 wonders of the world, which is also a good reason for a history lover like me to visit.

The Colosseum looks bigger than I imagined. It is admirable the Italians who are able to preserve such a great work after nearly 2000 years and through a number of continental wars and sacks of Rome.

The walkway down to the Colosseum looks "old" too, doesn't it? I think this is a really old walkway because I have seen a lot of ruins like this in Rome.

People become small when standing in front of the world wonder.

The exterior surface of the Colosseum has been eroded a lot over time.

A marble plaque engraved with the Colosseum's original name "Flavian Amphitheater". As far as I know, the Latin texts below are the commemorative inscription of Pope Benedict XIV with those who fought and died here and considered it as a sacred place.

I paid extra fee for audio guide. However, I found it quite difficult to use and not very useful to me.

I really liked how they designed the Colosseum's historic slide. Everything is ancient, except for the modern TV screen.

The cross in Colosseum is not old. It was placed here by Pope John Paul II in the year 2000 to dedicate Christian martyrs passed away in the bloody arena.

The path inside is not much different from the outside. All are stones that have been worn down after thousand of years.

The Colosseum looks like a football stadium. As I know, many modern stadiums today are inspired by the design of the Colosseum.

The biggest difference from the outside was the arena inside where I could imagine hundreds of thousands of people fought brutally and died in mortal battles.

Initially the arena surface was made of wood. However, they realized that the bloodshed had made the floor slippery, so they changed it to a sandy surface.

A photo depicting the operation and structure of the arena.

Not only human versus human, this arena was also a place where humans fought with wild animals. Many bones of wild animals have been found at the Colosseum.

As the audio, the seating position in the arena represents the social status of the audience. The closer to the arena, the higher the social status. The white stone seating area is reserved for royalty and senators.

The positions of senators and some upper-class people were engraved with their names and passed to the next generation.

I would love to visit the area below the arena. However, they are only for "special tickets" :(

That moment when I tough a-thousand-years stone.

All artifacts found are not intact.

I didn't see any direction sign here, so I got lost trying to find the exit.

From here, I could see the Roman Forum, another ruin of the Roman Empire.