The Pantheon, Rome, built in 126 AD

Описание: The dome with a hole on top viewed from the Piazza della Minerva begins this little tourist video which follows on to the portico and then explores the rotunda from the inside, ending looking up at the sky through the polo-hole in the dome. This open oculus provides the light in the windowless building.... built as a temple to all the gods of ancient Rome & converted to a Christian church in the C7 as "Santa Maria Rotonda", diameter 43.3metres. The building is possibly more widely recognized by its classic portico than by the dome which is hard to see from outside, surrounded by buildings among Rome's thronged streets. It is not tall enough to be seen and admired from afar in the way that more recent domes such as St Peter's basilica in the Vatican (1506-1626 AD ), St Paul's in London (1675-1708 AD www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanbarker/5585842544/ ), the Duomo in Florence (1296-1436 AD, 44m dia. ) or even the Haga Sophia in Istanbul (Constantinople, AD 537) can be. However, as still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome, it is a model for other later domes built over the following 2000 years and is astonishingly well-preserved, having been in continuous use - as a place of worship and wonder and tourism - throughout its life.

The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres, making this one of the world's widest domes, dwarfed by the famous Renaissance cathedrals more in terms of decoration, lanterns and pediments and by the fact that they stand atop much higher walls and columns.