tough day

[Guest guest]

Dave had a pretty tough day yesterday. But trying to

take care of himself. He slept a lot … it’s difficult going

from a little big walking a day to literally miles a day. What a

trooper. We had lunch in a beautiful Campo just before visiting the

Pantheon the oldest building built over ancient Rome. There are two levels of Rome. One many

centuries old and another built about 2 centuries ago.

The

portico consists of three rows of eight columns, 14 m (46 feet) high of

Egyptian granite with Corinthian capitals. They support an entablature facing

the square, which bears the famous inscription in Latin, attributing the

construction to Agrippa, although the extant temple was rebuilt later by

Hadrian.

The dome

has a span of 43.2 m (142 feet), the largest dome until Brunelleschi's dome at

the Florence Cathedral of 1420-36.

The

interior volume is a cylinder above which springs the half sphere of the dome.

A whole sphere can be inscribed in the interior volume, with the diameter at

the floor of the cylinder of 43.3 m (143 feet) equaling the interior height.

Five rows

of twenty-eight square coffers of diminishing size radiate from the central

unglazed oculus with a diameter of 8.7 m (29 feet) at the top of the dome.

The dome

is constructed of stepped rings of solid concrete with less and less density as

lighter aggregate (pumice) is used, diminishing in thickness to about 1.2 m (4

feet) at the edge of the oculus. The dome rests on a cylinder of masonry walls

6 m (20 feet). Hidden voids and the interior recesses hollow out this

construction, so that it works less as a solid mass and more like three

continuous arcades which correspond to the three tiers of relieving arches

visible on the building exterior. Originally, these exterior walls were faced

with colored marbles.