Pantheon

Introduction

The Pantheon is the most complete and greatest surviving building from ancient Rome. Famous for its huge dome and the oculus skylight, it has stood nearly two thousand years and remains a pinnacle symbol of Roman engineering, a stunning sight in Rome. The Pantheon stands in Rome's center, one of the most complete and best-preserved buildings from ancient Rome (standing and in use for nearly two millennia). Built in Roman times as a temple to all the gods (hence its name), later converted to a church, it survived. Most astonishing is its unparalleled huge dome: a perfect hemispherical concrete dome by the Romans, with a span so large (diameter equals height, over forty meters) that, nearly two thousand years on, it remains the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome, a pinnacle marvel of Roman engineering. More wondrous, at the dome's center is a circular oculus (eye), the only natural light source: a beam of light pours through, moving across the grand, solemn hall with the sun, solemn, sacred and poetic (on rainy days, rain also falls through). Entering, looking up at the perfect dome and the pouring light, one is stunned by Roman ingenuity. Raphael and others are buried here. Visiting Rome and admiring the intact, stunning Pantheon, looking up at the dome's light, is a stunning sight.

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