Tag: ancient-rome
All the articles with the tag "ancient-rome".
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The Roman Forum and Palatine Hill: How to Read a Pile of Ruins as a City
Published:• 13 min readThe Roman Forum is a half-buried timeline of the city that ran the western world for eight hundred years. A Roman Forum audio guide reading the ruins in sequence from the Capitoline to the Palatine.
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Hagia Sophia: The Cathedral That Became a Mosque That Became a Cathedral
Published:• 10 min readHagia Sophia stood as the largest cathedral on earth for nine hundred years before becoming a mosque. The building under the layers is stranger than either.
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The Colosseum: How Rome Built a Stadium That Could Empty Fifty Thousand People in Fifteen Minutes
Published:• 9 min readThe Colosseum could empty fifty thousand spectators in fifteen minutes and flood its own floor for naval battles. A look at the most efficient stadium ever built.
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Pompeii: The City That Vesuvius Buried, and Then Preserved
Published:• 9 min readPompeii was buried alive in a single afternoon in 79 AD. The ash that killed the city is also what saved it. A walk through what the volcano left behind.
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The Pantheon Dome: How Rome Cast a Concrete Sky That Has Not Fallen in 1,900 Years
Published:• 12 min readThe Pantheon dome is still, after nineteen hundred years, the largest unreinforced concrete dome on earth. How the Romans cast it -- and why it has not fallen.
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Who Built the Pantheon: The Three Names Behind a Two-Thousand-Year-Old Roof
Published:• 10 min readWho built the Pantheon? Agrippa's name is on it, Hadrian actually built it, and Apollodorus of Damascus probably designed the dome. Here is how all three fit.
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Pantheon History: How a Pagan Temple Became the Oldest Continuously Used Building in Rome
Published:• 11 min readThe full pantheon history -- Agrippa's lost temple, the fire, Hadrian's rebuild, the conversion to Santa Maria ad Martyres, and the pope who stripped the bronze.