Colosseums - Not just in Rome

I once spent a week driving around Southern France. It was great. What surprised me though, is the vast amount of Roman ruins lying about the place. What was really interesting is the number of Roman Colosseums. We all have the image in our mind of the Colosseum in Rome, but who knew there were OTHERS! When I looked into it, it became clear that there are lots of Colosseums dotted around the old Roman Empire. Some of them are in places you wouldn't expect.

The first point to make is that the term "Colosseum" is the Roman slang name for that huge building in Rome where the gladiators ran about. It's official name is the "Flavian Amphitheater", as it was built in ancient times by Emperor Vespasian, who's family name was Flavian. Built next to it was a huge, some might say collossal, statue of Emperor Nero. That's where the term colosseum comes from. A better term is probably "Roman Amphitheater".

The colosseums were built in many cities around the Roman Empire. Any city that was important had one. If you think of all the Roman cities around the Mediterranean, that's a lot! Wikipedia has a good list.

The one in Rome was the biggest, but the second largest is in Capua, Italy. Indeed, half the 90 or so surviving examples are in Italy. That's why I was so surprised to run into TWO of them in southern France. The first is in Nimes:

It's still used for concerts and is in relatively good condition for its age. The second one is in Arles:

It's also used for shows today. In the middle ages and beyond it was used for bull fights! The square tower was added as a watch tower.

But, by far the most impressive colosseum I've seen outside Rome is the one in Tunisia. It's called "El Jem" and sits in the middle of the dessert. At one time, the city must have bene large. You don't go building huge stone buildings for a few farmers. Today, the city seems to survive on the tourist trade and you can see why - it's a very impressive building:

This building was featured in an episode of "The Amazing Race". It was cool to see it in person. The two hour drive from Tunis was well worth it. It's fairly well preserved. Wandering around the insides, on the same ground as the gladiators once sweated and died is quite an experience:


It just goes to show what can happen when you travel around the place. There's always something out there to challenge your expectations and to surprise you.