The Colosseum — Arena of the Eternal City

It held 80,000 people. It had elevators powered by ropes and counterweights to lift animals and scenery from the underground chambers below the arena floor. It could be flooded for naval battles. It was completed in eight years — built by 100,000 enslaved Jewish prisoners after the destruction of Jerusalem. The Colosseum stood for 450 years as the center of Roman public entertainment, hosting gladiatorial combat, animal hunts, and public executions. It is still standing. Whatever Rome built, it built to last.

These signs carry the arches of the Colosseum, the gladiator's helmet, the thumbs of the crowd, and the sand that remembered everything.