Colosseum slump raises alarm bells
Philip Willan
The Times, 30/07/2012
The Colosseum has developed a 15-inch list, raising the prospect of an emergency structural intervention similar to that used to save the Leaning Tower of Pisa (Philip Willan writes). The director of the monument, which received more than five million visitors last year, has signed an agreement to have the subsidence problems monitored for a year. The structure has concrete foundations 42ft deep but experts suspect that these may have developed a significant fracture. The gladiatorial arena, started by the Emperor Vespasian in 72AD, has been showing its age, with bits of plaster and masonry falling from the arches recently. A planned 20 million restoration has been delayed by red tape.
