To create a flat space long enough for the race track on the city’s uneven peninsula meant building a massive supporting wall at one end, which still supports the modern buildings on top – and it’s into the vast cavernous space behind this structure that we’re now stepping, a place where legend has it a later unpopular emperor was murdered.
This door in Istanbul is the entrance way to the underbelly of the city’s ancient hippodrome – the horse-racing track.īuilt in the 4th century CE, when the Emperor Constantine founded a new capital of the Roman empire on the site of the old Greek colony of Byzantium (which he renamed Constantinople after himself), the hippodrome was one of his first major building projects.
Number of pupils in classes of over 30 doubles Secrets hidden underground Schools are spending less time on art and music Schools should limit setting and streaming, research shows The challenge is to bring it alive for modern students and for the general public alike, which I why I trepidatiously donned this gear for the news BBC documentary Ancient Invisible Cities. Many people probably think of classics as a subject too often stuck in a world of dusty books written in ancient languages no normal person can understand any more. But dressed in waterproof waders up to my chest, a security harness with climbing grips, a hard hat, safety gloves and a large flashlight, with two caving safety experts hovering behind me, I can’t help wondering: what have I got myself into this time? I’ve come prepared for whatever I’ll find inside. Nestled in a crumbling stone wall that’s more than 1,500 years old, it opens to reveal a black expanse. I’ve walked down this street in Istanbul a dozen times but never previously noticed the small, creaking door I’m about to go through. Classics is a subject for everyone – and technology, alongside old-fashioned exploring, is helping new generations to learn about the ancient world, writes Michael Scott
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