Arena of Nîmes

About this place

The Arena of Nîmes is a Roman amphitheatre in Nîmes, Southern France. Built around 100 AD, only about twenty years after the Colosseum of Rome, it is one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. It is 133 metres long and 101 metres wide, with an arena measuring 68 by 38 metres. The outer facade is 21 metres high with two storeys of 60 arcades. It is among the 20 largest Roman amphitheatres of the 400 in existence. In Roman times, the building could hold 24,000 spectators, who were spread over 34 tiers of terraces divided into four self-contained zones or maeniana. During Roman times, the Arena of Nîmes functioned as an arena where gladiators battled each other and wild animals. Follow the relationship between the audience area and the performance space. The layout reveals how builders gathered a crowd and focused its attention, connecting the surviving monument with the people who once came here for shared public entertainment.