The Colosseum or Coliseum is today the most recognisable of Rome's Classical buildings. Even 2,000 years after it was built, and despite centuries when the abandoned building was pillaged for building materials, it is instantly recognisable ... a Classical template for the stadia of today. It was the first permanent amphitheatre to be raised in Rome, and the most impressive arena the Classical world had yet seen. And with accommodation for 60,000 seated and 10,000 standing, all of whom could enter and leave in a matter of minutes, courtesy of 80 entrances, this is a structure that the designers of modern sports stadia could learn from.

The name Colosseum is in fact a much later addition. It was originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, and was conceived as a peculiarly Roman political gesture . a gift from a new dynasty of Roman emperors to a populace kept happy by bread and circuses.In 68AD Emperor Nero died and with him the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

Vespasian was made emperor by the Senate in the following year and decided the city needed a new amphitheatre. Just like a modern politician, such gestures simultaneously pleased the populace and would (hopefully) leave a lasting monument to the emperor's greatness. Well maybe. The city's first amphitheatre in stone had been built in 29BC by Statilius Taurus, but Caligula (12-41AD) had adjudged it too small and started building his own.

Claudius succeeded Caligula and immediately halted his grand plan. And when Nero ruled Rome he eschewed the Statilius arena and made plans for his own, to be built in the Campus Martis. A magnificent building by all accounts, but razed in the fire that swept Rome in 64AD.

The Colosseum measures 48 m (157 ft / 165 Roman ft) high, 189 m (615ft) long, and 165 m (510 ft) wide. It is oval is shape, and covers an area of 6 acres. Unlike amphitheatres before it, the Colosseum is not built into an existing hillside or natural slope, but instead is free standing. It originally consisted of 100,000 cubic metres of travertine stones held together by 300 tons of iron clamps.

Much of the Colosseum has since collapsed. Of the outer wall, only the northern half remains standing. This outer wall consists of three stories of arcades with arches, and a fourth level with small windows at regular intervals. The arches on the second and third level framed statues from Classical mythology.