Colosseum

Monument to the power and cruelty of ancient Rome

Word to the wise: A great way to escape the hour long queue is to buy a combined ticket at the entrance to the Roman Forum, which allows you to skip the queue.
This is one of Rome’s most famous and imposing structures. Well-known not only as a battleground for gladiators and an icon to the magnificence, power and prestige of ancient Rome, but also for its cruelty, where thousands of gladiators, criminals and Christians met their bloody end.

The Colosseum is a structural and engineering marvel, and one of the greatest works of Roman architecture. Originally called the Flavian Amphitheatre, it could hold more than 70,000 spectators, and the tiered seats were inclined in such a way that good views could be enjoyed by all.
The structure we see nowadays is just the skeleton, albeit a very impressive one. But during the Middle Ages when the amphitheatre was no longer in use, the marble was quarried and used in the construction of the cathedrals of St Peter and St John Lateran, and the Palazzo Venezia.