TIL the Colosseum floor wasn't original after seeing a 1990s photo

I was flipping through an old Nat Geo from 1994 at a thrift store. The Colosseum in Rome just had this open pit showing all the underground tunnels. Now it's got this huge new floor platform tourists walk on. They finished rebuilding it in 2023 I think. Cost about 18 million euros. Kinda crazy they just let it sit as a hole for like 1500 years then decide to put the floor back. Anyone know if they used original materials or just modern concrete?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix2461mo ago

Man, that's a good question but does it even matter if the materials are authentic when they're basically building a modern stage on top of ancient ruins? I've seen those photos from the 90s too and it was wild how you could see all the underground chambers where they kept animals and gladiators. Feels like they're trading one kind of historical experience for another, you know?

diana6171mo ago

Disagree entirely. Leaving those underground chambers exposed was a huge part of the draw, it let you see how the whole thing actually worked. Now it's just a pretty stage with a modern floor, feels like they sanded off all the character.

victor7791mo ago

Hold on, why do we keep acting like leaving it as a hole for 1500 years was some sacred tradition? The thing was basically turned into a gravel pit for centuries. People stole the marble cladding, the bronze fittings, everything. It's not like they were preserving some ancient masterpiece. It was a ruin. Putting a modern floor back in actually gives you a real sense of the space and how it was used. Tourists walking on it can actually feel the scale instead of just staring down into a dirt pit.