Visit the Roman Pantheon with a private english driver guide.
February 13th 2007 08:04
After the visit to the Vatican in the morning you can spend the afternoon day tour in Rome visiting the ancient Rome starting from the Pantheon.
The Pantheon is made perfectly harmonious by the fact that the distance from the floor to the top of the dome is exactly equal to its diameter. Adytons (shrines recessed into the wall) and coffers (sunken panels) cleverly reduce the weight of the dome, as did a lightweight cement made of pumice used in the upper levels. The dome gets thinner as it approaches the oculus, the hole in the top of the dome used as a light source for the interior. The thickness of the dome at that point is only 1.2 meters.
The oculus is 7.8 meters in diameter. It rains and snow occasionally fall through it, but the floor is slanted and drains cleverly remove the water if it manages to hit the floor. In practice, rain seldom falls inside the dome.
The massive columns supporting the portico weigh 60 tons. Each was 39 feet (11.8 m) tall, five feet (1.5 m) in diameter and made from stone quarried in Egypt. The columns were transported by wooden sledges to the Nile, barged to Alexandria, and put on vessels for a trip across the Mediterranean to the port of Ostia. From there the columns came up the Tiber by barge.
After the visit to the ancient Rome your full day Rome cruise tour will end at the port of Civitavecchia or to the airports of Rome.
| 34 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
