Pantheon Doors

Looking up at the massive bronze doors and ceiling of the Pantheon exterior. The colors are from the mixed lighting sources at night (the yellow light on the bottom is tungsten and the green on the top is either sodium vapor or mercury vapor). You can see another shot of the exterior here. We only visited at night, so the doors were locked and we could not go inside.

Of all ancient Rome's great buildings, the Pantheon is the lone intact survivor. It is enormous. Like the Colosseum, I had only seen it in pictures and I did not expect it to be quite so large in real life. It amazes me that early Romans were able to construct such large structures. This one was originally built from 27 to 25 B.C. as a Roman "temple of all the gods" (pan=all and theos=gods). It was rebuilt from 118 to 125 A.D. by the Emperor Hadrian. Hadrian paid homage to Agrippa, the original architect, in the inscription on the portico, which you can see in this shot.

The doors are original from the 120 A.D. rebuild. Most of the columns are original, and made from single pieces of granite.

LENS: 17-35 at ~17mm | FILM: Fuji Velvia | EXPOSURE: f/22 at 5 minutes | DATE: 10/03

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