The Colosseum in Rome is one of
the most notable and impressive feats of architecture in
the history of the world. Opened in the year 80
CE by the Emperor Titus, the arena was used to stage
gladiator combat, skirmishes with wild animals, and
even mock naval battles with actual boats. The unknown architects
behind this design put extensive thought
into every detail. If you've ever wanted to
construct your own amphitheater of death, then this
is your lucky day, because today we're going
to take a look at how the Romans built the Colosseum. But before we get started, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel, and let us
know in the comments below what other historical sites you
would like to know more about. Do you want to be entertained? OK, let the video begin. [MUSIC PLAYING] In 64 CE, Emperor
Nero built himself a home, which he humbly
nicknamed the Golden Palace. Clearing the land
necessary for construction meant seizing property from
numerous ordinary Romans, which as you might imagine,
wasn't a super popular move. After Nero died,
the empire quickly cycled through four
other corrupt emperors. Then in 69 CE,
Vespasian seized power. Looking to reverse the damage
Nero and his successors had done to the Roman
people's faith in government, Vespasian lived a
more modest lifestyle and aggressively advocated
for Rome's citizenry. It was around 70 CE
when Vespasian promised to build a public
amphitheater, which would hold gladiator tournaments. In a politically
symbolic move, Vespasian chose to build
this arena directly on the site of
Nero's Golden Palace. In 80 CE, after 10
years of construction, Vespasian's son, Emperor
Titus, would finally open the Colosseum. The venue was inaugurated
with a festival that boasted 100 days of games. [MUSIC PLAYING] Vespasian chose to have
the Colosseum constructed on what was once the site of
a lake in the garden of Nero's Golden Palace. The construction
would require drainage 26 feet beneath the surface to
divert rivers and streams that flowed from the nearby hills. It would also mean the concrete
foundations of the Colosseum would have to run extra
deep to prevent collapse. Dirt that was dug
out of the ground to make space for
the large foundation was repurposed to build up
the land around the structure. This elevated the Colosseum
23 feet above ground level forcing crowds to look
up at rather than down on the building. Don't rush off to see
for yourself though. Due to changes in the
landscape in modern times, the Colosseum sits
level with the ground. [MUSIC PLAYING] The blocks of
travertine stone used in the construction
of the Colosseum were quarried in a place called
Albulae, located near what today is the town of Tivoli. The site of the quarry
was about 20 miles from the site of the Colosseum,
so transporting the blocks wouldn't be easy. To help things along, the
Romans built a road specifically for the purpose of moving
the stone from the quarry to the construction site. Each cart load contained
30 to 50 stones. And historians estimate
workers would have transported roughly 240,000 carts. 20 to 30,000 people
would have been involved in the construction. The majority of
them were slaves. [MUSIC PLAYING] The Roman Empire
was an innovator in the use of concrete to build
larger and sturdier structures than had ever been built before. The vaults and arches
of the Colosseum were made from concrete, which
allowed the massive building to maintain an open and
airy atmosphere, while still being structurally sound. The foundations were
also made of concrete. Starting at the outer
wall, the foundation was laid out in
concentric circles that moved inward toward the arena. The lowest part
of the foundation is roughly 42-feet
deep, and it becomes shallower as it moves inward. Roman cement was
usually made by heating limestone to create calcium
oxide, also known as quicklime. Submerging the
quicklime in water created a putty that acted as
a binding agent in the cement. [MUSIC PLAYING] The unknown architect
of the Colosseum wanted the dimensions
of the building to reflect a ratio
of five to three, which was considered
ideal at the time. Indeed, the arena ultimately
measured 280 by 168 Roman feet, and the width of the
auditorium and arena were equal to the
height of the Colosseum. Because of the
Colosseum's arches, the perimeter of the
amphitheater had to be exact. There were 88 entrance
arches and each had to be 20 Roman feet wide and
have three Roman feet of space between them. For the record, the size
of a Roman foot could vary, but generally it was
around 11.5 inches. [MUSIC PLAYING] Construction of the Colosseum
started with the arches. Made from sturdy
travertine stone, the arches allowed
the laborers to start work on both the bottom
and top of the structure. Indeed, the upper
seating, wooden portico and walls at the top two
floors of the amphitheater were built simultaneously
with the lower portion of the building. It was this forward-thinking
construction plan that made it possible
for the Romans to construct the
Colosseum in less than a decade, an absolutely
astounding feat for the time. [SINGING IN ITALIAN] For the safety of the
spectators in the front rows, the seats closest to the stage
were raised nearly seven feet. In addition, a fence would
be placed around the ring to keep wild animals at bay. Made from marble and
travertine, these seats were also the most grandly
decorated and usually had ceilings adorned with
intricate works of art. However, as with many
modern sports arenas, as spectators moved
further up in the stands, the seating would become less
ornate and less comfortable. Everyone, except the
people in the front rows, would've been tightly
packed in with maybe one foot of personal space
and two feet of leg room. While that does sound cramped,
it's actually more space than you get flying
American Airlines, which isn't saying that much. [MUSIC PLAYING] To remove the waste
of humans and animals, the Colosseum required
a sewer system. The public bathrooms,
or latrines, were a row of
holes in the ground dug over a pipe that
carried flowing water, not fancy, but effective. The pipe would then
empty into a drain that connected to the city's
main sewer, the Cloaca Maxima. This system may have
also provided fresh water to the spectators,
the cisterns placed to the sides of the
Colosseum, which drew water from the Aqua Claudia aqueduct. Delivery was accomplished by
building lead and terracotta tunnels in the walls
of the Colosseum. [MUSIC PLAYING] Within the Colosseum,
marble and iron dividers can be found on the staircases. Though historians don't all
agree as to their function, some believe that
they were intended to keep spectators separated
into their proper socioeconomic classes, kind of like the
border between the riffraff and the jet set. I wonder if there was
a jet set before jets. Support for this
interpretation lies in the fact that the highest section
in the Colosseum, where the poorest members of
the audience typically sat, was separated from the
rest of the spectators by a 16-foot high wall. This seating at the
top of the arena, over 300 feet from the stage, is
likely where women and the poor would have been. However, many
historians have noted that the five ascending
sections in the arena don't correspond with
any known division of the number of Roman
social classes at the time. This means that if the
spectators were seated by social class,
it isn't obvious how those classes
were segregated. [MUSIC PLAYING] One of the coolest things
about the Colosseum was its ability to fill
with a few feet of water, so that sailors could
hold mock naval battles in miniature boats. The transformation
though was not easy. In order to create
the aquatic arena, workers had to remove
the amphitheater's floor and wooden supports. The arena would then
be flooded with water transported by aqueduct. After it was all
over, the Colosseum would be drained through
a series of runoff canals. The popularity of these naval
skirmishes decreased over time. Eventually, the
wooden supports were replaced with
masonry walls, which ended the possibility
of flooding the floor and having naval
battles in the arena. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hypogeum is the Greek
word for underground. And the hypogeum is an
area beneath the Colosseum that was used for a
variety of purposes. Several sections of its walls
are carved in unusual ways. An historian spent many years
working out the purposes of the various carvings. For example, in the late 1990s,
architect Heinz-Jürgen Beste discovered a set of
tracks in the walls of the hypogeum's hallways and
strange diagonal indentations near some of the
entrances to the arena. Beste eventually concluded
that the tracks were likely used to move animal cages
through the hypogeum during events. The diagonal
indentations allowed for the placement of
ramps that would lead the animals into the arena. Beste also theorized
that a mysterious series of semicircular
cuts in the walls were there to allow for
the placement of devices called capstans. The capstans had
four rotating arms and could be used to lift heavy
animal cages from the hypogeum to the arena floor. The architect
found the locations of 60 capstans of this type and
another 20, which he believed were used to set up
and change scenery. [MUSIC PLAYING] Laborers who worked
in the hypogeum received none of the
luxuries that the audience took for granted. In summer, the poorly ventilated
hypogeum was extremely hot. And in winter, it
became cold and damp. It was also incredibly loud. The tiny space housed
machinery, wild animals and numerous people who would
be shouting to each other. On top of all that, there
were organ and drum cues that signaled workers to
send up scenery or animals, as well as a boisterous
crowd whose footsteps would echo below. [MUSIC PLAYING] For those warm summer
days, the Colosseum was equipped with an
enormous cloth awning known as vela, which would be
hoisted over the structure to shade spectators. The Colosseum wasn't the
only one to use vela. They were fairly
common in ancient Rome and most amphitheaters
and arenas had vela. The villa at the Colosseum
were rigged similarly to a sail on a ship, making
actual sailors the most qualified people to operate it. That being the
case, the Colosseum used actual members
of the Roman navy to lift and secure the
awning over the crowd. The job was considered a
privilege among the sailors, as it meant they would get
to see a large city, which most never got the
opportunity to do. Sailors in the Roman
navy were typically enslaved young men
and boys, who had been taken from countries
around the world that had been conquered by Rome. They would serve for 15
to 30 years, after which, they earned their freedom
and Roman citizenship. And you thought student
loans were a pain. So what do you think? What impresses you most
about the Colosseum? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
