Ancient Romans: They sure knew how to build

Everywhere in Rome (including St. Peter's Square) you see obelisks, but that's one thing the Romans never built themselves. They brought them over on their ships. That raises the question as to the size of the ships the empire built that could carry such massive stones across the Mediterranean. As it turns out, the ships that the Romans constructed to carry grain from Egypt to Rome were nearly six times the size of the Mayflower. I read once that there were no ships built in Europe to match the size of the Roman ones until the 19th century: nearly 2000 years later!

When you see the massive size of what's left of Roman structures you wonder how they could ever build anything so big. It's even more amazing to think that the building would still be around if the city wasn't prone to earthquakes. An earthquake collapsed the facade on the south part of the Colosseum, for instance. There are places in France where Roman stadiums are still used today.

Other buildings too--temples, basilicas, baths--collapsed as a result of earthquakes, although a number remained whole and parts of others are still standing. The best and biggest of the surviving structures is the Pantheon, which was converted early on into a church. Its dome was the largest concrete dome in the world for nearly 2000 years, until the 1950's in fact. From the inside it's hard to conceive that the place is as old as it is. Here's a photo of the Pantheon and the "oculus" (eye) in the roof, big enough for my house to fit through. The place looks pretty good for being 1900 years old.