Rome, Italy

This is our first look at the Coliseum as we went in. I'm was surprised to see that it looks like it's under construction. Apparently, the Coliseum is in a state of nearly perpetual conservation. Real conservation did not begin until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A law was passed in 1743 forbidding any further removal of stone. The east and west ends of the building were reinforced to stop them collapsing. But it was not until the nineteenth century that the first systematic excavations of the building began En savoir plus