The Coleseum

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A view of the Coleseum at during the day. The facade of three tiers of arches and an attic story is about 48.5 m (158 ft) tall — roughly equivalent to a 12-15 story building.
A view of the Coleseum at during the night. It was a magnificient sight to see so such a piece of history glowing against the background of a dark sky.
The Colosseum or Flavian Amphitheater was begun by Vespasian, inaugurated by Titus in 80 A.D.Its monumental size and grandeur as well as its practical and efficient organization for producing spectacles and controlling the large crowds make it one of the great architectural monuments achieved by the ancient Romans.
During the inauguration of the Coliseum, 5000 exotic animals were sacrificed. For nearly 500 years, fights between gladiators and wild bests were held. The destruction of the Coliseum is due to a few factors. Mainly vandalism is the cause of its demise. The Pope's were so against the arena, that they would eventually take much of the beautiful artifacts and outter shell from the Coliseum to build St. Peter's Basilica and other religious monuments. The Coliseum was also rocked by at least one major earthquake.
In the center of this picture is where the emperor would sit while watching the fights. At the end of the gladiator fights, he would be asked by the winning gladiator if he should kill or spare the life of his opponent. The emperor would give his decision based on what he and the crowd decided. A simple hand motion of thumbs up, or thumbs down would indicate whether the gladiator was to be killed or not. Interesting fact, the slang for thumbs up was "siskel" in slang for thumbs down was "ebert" during Roman times.
The amphitheater is a vast ellipse with tiers of seating for 55,000 spectators around a central elliptical arena. Below the wooden arena floor, there was a complex set of rooms and passageways for wild beasts and other provisions for staging the spectacles. Eighty walls radiate from the arena and support vaults for passageways, stairways and the tiers of seats. At the outer edge circumferential arcades link each level and the stairways between levels.
Pictured is the "Arch of Constatine." The Arch of Constantine was erected to celebrate the emperor's victory over Maxentius in 312 AD. It was during that battle that the emperor saw a cross burning in the sky. He took that as a message to have God on his side through the battle. After triumphantly winning the battle against Maxentius, Constantine legalized Christianity with the edict of Milan of 313 AD.
The girls pose for a picture from a balcony in the Coleseum with the Arch of Constantine in the background.
A view from the Coleseum into Roman Forum.
A view from the Coleseum down the passing street. Under this street is the largest known archilogical dig waiting to happen. The street was paved by
Russ, Jensen, Lindsay, Lindsay, Ashley, Mark and Sarah pose in front of the Coleseum .
Sarah finds a Roman soldier outside the Coleseum and gets a little violent.
Sarah carries on a conversation with her new found friend. Actually, he had snuck up behind Sarah and scared her half to death with the knife, so here she is letting him know she just lost her stomach on his sneak attack.