Friday, October 19, 2007

Interactive Colosseum

The Colosseum (brought to you by PBS)

Spend some time exploring the inside and the outside of the Colosseum. Give it a minute to load, then click on "what do you see?" to get started.

Comments for this post are due by Monday 10-22.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow it's amzing how they even built it. They were very practical(though it was used for killings) with how they built it and I don't think we could ever come close to something like that in years! It's a beautiful building and I hope to visit it one day but I don't like the purpose of the building. A little money from the people, a little more for the emperor and all is happy.

Anonymous said...

Yeah I would love to visit the Colosseum some day as well. I think it's cool how every row of the Colosseum has a different kind of column. The rules were a little different as compared to arenas these days. For instance, women were only allowed on one floor and the top gallery was for slaves and people who didn't have tickets. Too bad that rule has changed over time because how awesome it would be to get into the pepsi colosseum w/o ticekts

Rexus Lunazul said...

This is not the first time I look at the Colosseum structure, but in fact is the fist time I see it in the computer in a dimensional form, the structure, the form, everything besides the use that implied with the gladiator games was impressive, is impressive to see the materials used in some of the columns, not all the materials were alike as they needed to focus on resistance for the structure in order to make it strong and unable to crash as some other buildings we have seen before.

Anonymous said...

I find it very interesting that in compared to today's stadiums, the colosseum has many similarities. They had multiple entrances for finding seating and numbered seats. I think it is really intriguing that for the most part their design has yet to be changed much. Except, I remember talking about on Friday that the only real differenced in today's are bathrooms and concession stands. I think it is odd that women had to sit up higher to “protect” them. I agree though that it would be great to be able to get in free to see events (but I wouldn’t be there for pubic killings.)

Unknown said...

The resemblances to modern sporting arenas is uncanny. The seating representing status is very much like the variations in ticket prices today. The Emperor has his own private box and there seems to be other boxes for other highly-regarded individuals. Stadiums now have private booths for the team owner and wealthier ticket holders. I found the complexities of the underground tunnels the most interesting, especially since they managed to flood the area and have "sea battles."

Anonymous said...

When you see the Colosseum in real life, you're just in awe at how such a building was created. In some pictures you see of the Colosseum you see a solid floor, but that's not the case anymore. It's completely open to see the chambers and tunnels that were underneath and the seating has begun to "deteriorate" over the years. Once you step out of the halls it is complete silence. There is also a large metal/steel cross that stands at one end. I'm not sure if that cross was placed there when the Colosseum was first built or if it was added at a later date.

jpayne said...

To see pictures of the Colosseum is pretty amazing, but I'm sure it would be better to see in person. Looking at pictures of it with all the detail, I can't imagine all the hard work and time that was put into it. Can you imagine how long it would take people today to build this? Not to mention the time to figure out where to start! Aside from the purpose of the colosseum, I like the structure of it. Today's sports arenas have followed suit and match this pretty well. I like the fact that in this one though, that there is something unique to each level.All the different levels of seating for different people...an area just for women and the top just for the slaves. This is by far one of my favorites for the structures from back then! :)

Anonymous said...

I think that the Colosseum is an amazing work of art. The design was so practical that even today stadiums for sporting events and concerts are built in almost the same fashion. Not only is it amazing that they could make such a practical design, but just to build something so masive without any machines or any help other than man power is almost unbelievable. I also like how they had the retractable roof, now they could watch the killings no matter how hot it was.

Anonymous said...

I looked up the colosseum to get more information and I learned that the flooring inside the arena was sand. It would have been quite dramatic to see the sand being kicked up while they were fighting. I can imagine the animals running in a clous of dust from the sand ground. I thought that it was cool to be able to interactively read about the colosseum through that website. The statues probably looked really cool on the two levels when they were all standing.
http://www.eyeconart.net/history/ancient/Colosseum.htm

James Almquist said...

It would be amazing to see the colosseum in real. The size, how it was built and the underground floor are all incredible.

Although many people are complementing on how its the same design used in todays stadiums, I dont think thats all that intriguing because if your building something for people to watch events thats almost how it has to be built; many entrances/exits, raised seting all point down to the main stage etc... all make sense to do and any other way would of just been wrong.

aydin1107 said...

It's hard to imagine all the detail that was put into the colosseum. This seems so advanced for this time period. I really like the statues of the gods and goddesses that are put between the columns. They add great character to the building.

Anonymous said...

this post has been graded