Sunday, December 30, 2012

The Colosseum - Rome

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to travel to Italy. In Rome, I toured the historic Colosseum, arguably one of the first sports facilities built in modern times. Construction on the structure began in 72 AD and was completed in 80 AD.  Click here to learn more about the structure.

Here are a few photos.  First, the exterior made of travertine stone:




Next, a couple shots of the interior:



A couple of shots of the floor of the Colosseum:



The floor had a number of trap doors and elevators that raised animals into the Colosseum.  Click HERE to learn more about the trap doors and the floor.

I was amazed at how some of the architectural used at the Colosseum is similar to what is used today.  Here is an example.  Going from the concourse to the seating bowl.  First, the Colosseum, second Tropicana Field:



Also, did you know that the Colosseum had a retractable sail?  It was called a "velarium." Over 1,000 sailors would use ropes and pulleys to move the canvas sails.  Here are a few photos of the system:

A photo of the design:


A photo of the areas where the ropes were attached to the ground:


Click HERE to learn more about the velarium.

The velarium looks awful close to one of the proposed designs for a new ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays:

photo courtesy of peplums.blogspot.com


photo courtesy of mlb.sbnation.com

Overall, the Colosseum is an impressive structure.  Even more impressive to consider it was built almost 2000 years ago.

Go to j-dturf.com to learn more about J&D Turf.

Play on!
--Jamie
@JamieMehringer

1 comment:

  1. There could be some similarities between the stadium and what a baseball stadium looks like. But of course, the Roman Italians probably did not pollute the earth with as much garbage outside of their stadiums in ancient times making messes like modern North Americans do outside of their stadiums who do not know what trash containers are along with not know what ashtrays are used for and are not smart enough and have the maturity to know what a junkyard is used for.

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