In which city is the Colosseum?

The Colosseum stands in Rome, just east of the Forum, and was built by the Flavian emperors between roughly AD 70 and 80 on ground that Nero had seized for the artificial lake of his private palace. Handing that land back to the public as an arena was a deliberate political gesture. The building held tens of thousands of spectators, who entered through numbered arches with tokens that directed them to a seat, a crowd-flow system that modern stadiums still essentially copy. Sailors from the imperial fleet operated a vast awning, the velarium, to shade the tiers. Beneath the floor lay the hypogeum, two levels of tunnels, cells and lifts used to raise animals and scenery into the arena. The gappy appearance today has less to do with barbarians than with earthquakes and centuries of quarrying, when Romans took its stone and iron clamps for other buildings.

Its popular name comes not from its size but from a colossal statue of Nero that once stood beside it.