The Photo a Week Challenge from Nancy: From Above and Below

The Verona Arena, built in the first century,  is an open-air Roman amphitheater still in use today.  The Arena is one of the best-preserved ancient structures worldwide. These  stones have seen everything from gladiator games to rock concerts, from medieval jousts to Puccini operas.

From above

“The place held over 20,000 people in its heyday, hosting festivals that would draw visitors from all over. It was a complex and demanding entertainment industry, powered by the labor of hundreds of slaves in the underground tunnels. Grandiose stage sets would be erected in the central space. The elliptical shape gives the space excellent acoustics.

There were processions, circus acts, dancing and music, but, above all, the citizens came to see blood sports. Fierce wild animals from faraway places in the empire were brought in to be hunted, and condemned prisoners were executed in bloody and inventive ways. The feature presentation was always a gladiator show, in which two trained combatants would fight one another to the death. The word “arena” means sand, and it refers to the sand that covered the floor of the ring to absorb the blood spilled during the fights.”
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-verona-arena/

From below – a tunnel leading to the outside

I wonder how many people have walked this corridor below the Arena