The Colosseum · The Seating Below Ground

When the Colosseum in Rome was completed, a hundred days of games were held, and it is said that thousands of wild animals and more than a thousand gladiators died. Beneath the arena lay a maze of passages and lifts that carried men and beasts up into the arena.

That underground level was later filled in and was only dug open again in the twentieth century; today you can look down into it from above.

At night the lights of the Colosseum show through the arches. A local saying goes: when you count the arches, do not stop on an even number, or you will count yourself in.

Historical Mysteries / Rome · Italy / 80