Colosseum - Rome, Italy - Four Tiers of Imperial Grandeur

The monumental outer facade of the Colosseum reveals its four architectural levels and sweeping rows of arches in the archaeological heart of Rome.

The Colosseum dominates the archaeological heart of Rome, its monumental outer facade rising through four architectural levels above the surrounding city. This broad view clearly reveals the repeated arcades of the lower three tiers and the more solid upper level that once supported the great velarium used to shade spectators. Known in antiquity as the Flavian Amphitheatre, the Colosseum was commissioned by Emperor Vespasian of the Flavian dynasty, with construction beginning around AD 70 on land previously occupied by the artificial lake of Nero’s Domus Aurea. It was completed and inaugurated under Vespasian’s son Titus in AD 80, while further alterations followed under Domitian. Measuring approximately 189 metres long, 156 metres wide and more than 48 metres high, it remains the largest amphitheatre in the world. Its arena hosted gladiatorial contests, animal hunts and other public spectacles, making the Colosseum one of the most extraordinary surviving monuments of Imperial Rome.