Unearthing The Mystery Behind The Roman Pantheon's Construction | Blowing Up History

Rome, the capital of one of the greatest empires in history. Its ancient roots are evident throughout the city. Every structure is a vital clue to the mysterious world of the ancient Romans. Right at the heart of the city stands the best preserved Roman monument in the world, the Pantheon. Surviving for 2,000 years, it's a miracle of engineering. The Pantheon is an iconic Roman building. In fact, it's one of the most famous in the world. Many scholars think it's the most extraordinary building ever built. And it's even more impressive when you think that it was designed and built 2,000 years ago without any of the advantages of modern technology that we have today. Today, this extraordinary monument captivates millions of people who come to visit each year. Sixteen towering columns flank the entrance. Topped with marble capitals, each one is carved from a single piece of granite. Inside, the exquisitely decorated circular interior is designed to impress. And its six-meter thick walls are built to stand for millennia. The roof is the largest dome of its kind, 43 meters wide with a nine-meter hole in the middle. Despite its venerable age, to this day, the monument's true purpose is a mystery. Valerie Higgins spends her life decoding the mysteries of ancient Rome. And none are more enigmatic than the Pantheon. The name Pantheon implies that at some point in the history of this building, it was a temple dedicated to all the gods, most particularly the 12 Olympian gods who were the most prestigious. The word Pantheon means temple of all the gods. But the Pantheon's design is far from that of a typical temple. When you look at it from this angle, it just looks like a typical temple, a huge, enormous temple. Behind it is this massive circular drum that we call the rotunda. And you think, that shouldn't be on the back of a temple. Most Roman temples are rectangular. Instead, the Pantheon's combination of an angular front and a curved rotunda at the back is completely unique. This isn't any temple. This is something that's extraordinary. The entire area is designed to make the Pantheon stand out. The Romans build a large monumental square in front, much larger than the one we see today. This would have made an area that was clearly very prestigious. At its center, the Pantheon towers over the city. The original ground level that we would have been standing on at the time of the Romans is some two or three meters down from here. This building would have been even more amazing because you would have looked up to it. Valerie believes that creating such an ostentatious building is part of a deliberate plan. Making this facade imposing was intentional. You were meant to feel intimidated by it. The Pantheon is built to impress. Why is it so important? The Pantheon's true purpose has puzzled archaeologists for centuries. But now, intriguing new clues have appeared around this monument that could help crack the mystery. Just a few months ago, a water pipe burst. It created a sinkhole. The cobblestones and the earth caved in. What they revealed were paving stones that were connected to the Pantheon. The sinkhole unearths a time capsule. Just a few meters beneath the modern piazza are travertine paving slabs from an ancient Roman square. Following these puzzle pieces to the Pantheon, archaeologists make an incredible discovery. A marble staircase leading up to a platform and the remains of columns that are as old as the paving slabs. Can these buried stones help reveal the true purpose of the Pantheon? Paolo Caraffa investigates the mysterious remains of this older building. The Pantheon we see today is the last chapter of a long history. Our work has been to reconstruct such a long history. Paolo and his team create a comprehensive map of all the archaeological discoveries beneath the Pantheon. All these clues placed on a much more accurate map revealed a structure exactly similar to the Pantheon we see today. The bulk of the structures were part of the original Pantheon. The existence of an older, original Pantheon underneath the Pantheon we see today is an astonishing discovery. Paolo's research reveals the original Pantheon is built around 27 BC. His work leads to the man who builds it. According to the literary sources, the original Pantheon is created by the first emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus. Why does Augustus build this first Pantheon? Valerie believes she can find clues in the surrounding city. So here we are in the heart of Rome. It's full of buildings, it's full of people, but it isn't in the least bit as it would have been at the time of the first Pantheon. To investigate the ancient area, Valerie compares today's map of Rome with a map of the city 2,000 years ago. We can see the Pantheon here at the time of Augustus. You wouldn't have seen anything in this area except the mausoleum of Augustus. Valerie suspects there is a connection between these two monuments and that Augustus' mausoleum is a clue to the purpose of his original Pantheon. Valerie has obtained rare permission to launch a drone-mounted camera above Rome. She wants to investigate the layout of the two monuments from the air. If we take a drone to go up and to fly over the top, we can have a look at how these structures relate to each other. Valerie searches for the mausoleum. From the site of the original Pantheon, the drone flies north over the rooftops of Rome. Valerie locates Augustus' mausoleum almost a kilometre north of the Pantheon. Its huge circular structure makes it easily identifiable even from 60 metres in the air. The eye in the sky reveals the two giant circular monuments are perfectly aligned. The Pantheon and the mausoleum of Augustus appear to be facing each other and they are linked along a visual axis. What more can the connection reveal? Valerie heads to the mausoleum of Augustus to investigate. It is one of the largest tombs in the world. This mausoleum tells us quite a lot about Augustus. He's founding a big imperial Rome. This monument was built to be a permanent memorial to him and his achievements. Valerie believes the mausoleum and the Pantheon are connected as part of an imperial design. Having a Pantheon facing the mausoleum that he and the rest of his family are going to be buried in indicate that they have a very special status. He is laying the foundations for acceptance of a new form of government of an emperor. The mausoleum's perfect alignment with the Pantheon reveals the original Pantheon's true purpose. Both buildings are tributes to Augustus where he can be worshipped and venerated forever. So why do the ruins of his original Pantheon lie beneath the building we see today?