colosseum | Ray and Shelley's Retirement Adventures

One of the highlights of Rome is the Colosseum. It is considered and listed as one of the new wonders of the World. For us this has been on our list of must see for years. This amazing structure is 52 meters high, which is the equivalent of a 17-storey structure.

It is an amazing structure with the arch architectural element. There are 80 arches over four floors that creates the famous elliptical shape of the Colosseum. The history of the colosseum is quite interesting. In fact in ancient Romans times it was called ” Flavian Amphitheater” which came from the name of the imperial family Flavia.

Shelley and Ray in front of the Colosseum in Rome

We were awed by the sheer size of the pillars, arches and overall size of the colosseum.

The inner section of the entry pillars of the colosseum

The amphitheater was a massive project and was designed to seat over 55,000 people. The amphitheater’s construction was funded with the spoils seized from the Jewish Temple after Roman crushed the Jewish Revolt of 70 AD. Stolen Jewish artifacts not only funded the building of the Colosseum, but Jewish slaves seized during the revolt built the building.

Image of the massive size of the colosseum in Rome.

At the end of the construction, the inauguration was celebrated with extraordinary games and fights that lasted 100 days.

We were fortunate to have an in depth tour of the colosseum with access to the underground area. A truly amazing structure and design known as the hypogeum. It was a network of tunnels and chambers distributed in two levels where gladiators and animals were kept before appearing in the arena above.

Lower rooms and hallways of the colosseum

We walked through the underground areas and could just imagine the chaos and sounds of the gladiators, animals and people.

We saw a recreation of the elevator type structures used to raise gladiators and animals into the colosseum arena.

Recreation of Roman elevator system in colosseum

recreation of a cage area of elevator at colosseum

After exploring the lower level of the colosseum we went to the reconstructed section of the arena floor where gladiators would have fought. The view from the arena floor gave us a unique perspective of just what the gladiators would have seen.

Shelley and Ray on the colosseum arena floor area.

We then explored the upper areas of the colosseum and saw the areas where over 50,000 spectators would watch the battles. Senators and the wealthy had reserved seats engraved in marble.