Pantheon (not Parthenon)

A couple days ago, mom and I went to the Roman Pantheon. At first when mom said that we were going to the Pantheon, I thought she meant later when we were going to the Parthenon in Greece. But she was right, we were going to the Pantheon in Rome!

The Pantheon was a pagan Roman temple that was later saved from destruction because it was converted into a church. Supposedly when it was converted, the evil pagan spirits floated through the roof but that's just a myth. It was built in approximately 125AD. It was built of Roman cement made of ash, lime, rock, and water. The materials become lighter (more pumas versus rock) as the structure gets higher.

It is in the top three biggest domes in the world. It has a hole in the top for structural integrity because if they filled it in, it would be too heavy and collapse.

The structure was a very close to perfect circle and when the sun comes through the centre hole, it moves left to right throughout the year. The winter solstice sun touches the highest part. The equinox sun touches the base of the dome. During the 21st of April, the birthday of Rome, at noon the sun strikes the door. On the summer solstice, the sun hits the floor in a nine metre circle.

Since there's a hole in the roof, the rain comes straight through it. Therefore there is a drainage system in the floor so it won't flood every time it rains. When Rome was abandoned, the Tiber River flooded and sediment built up so the original foundation of the Pantheon is six metres under the ground of the current ground level.

The flood of the Pantheon is built from four types of marble from four corners of the empire. Yellow was from Tunisia, white and grey was from Turkey, and red was from Egypt.

The outside of the dome was originally covered in bronze but was removed in the 7th century by Constantine II to use in Constantinople. More was later removed by the pope to use the canopy of Saint Peter's Basilica. It is now covered in lead to protect it.

In the seven corners of the Pantheon, there used to be statues of Roman planetary gods but they were removed and were replaced by Christian or government figures. The first king of Italy was buried there and there are volunteers that stand there all day to guard him as a sign of respect.

Around 80% of the Pantheon is original materials including the giant bronze door. 

Thanks for reading! And until next time, Pantheon does not have an R.