hey guys NaturallyKenya here and welcome back to my channel in this video i'm going to take you
guys inside my favorite tourist attraction in Rome and that is obviously the Pantheon which is right
behind me to be honest i was more impressed by the Pantheon than the Colosseum on my first trip to
rome don't ask me why i just thought it was so much larger than i expected i didn't expect to
turn the corner and there was this huge structure just sitting here for 2000 years but basically
from people's photos of the colosseum i could kind of gauge the size of the structure but with the
pantheon i had no idea if you have ever seen the Pantheon before you know exactly what i'm talking
about it is much larger than i anticipated with the sudden onset of the pandemic it did make me
kind of start to evaluate you know all of these wonderful attractions we have in the
city and how i kind of took them for granted considering that the pantheon has been closed for
a very long time i don't know months because of the pandemic i am finally able to go inside
so i wanted to take you guys with me i'm not a historian i am an engineer though and i really
like to share a few fun facts with you guys on exactly what the structure is all about so
fun fact number one the current pantheon is the third incarnation of the structure and the first
two actually burned down so what you're seeing is not the original pantheon at all it's a former
roman temple and now it is a catholic church as of today it was completed about 126 a.d so do you
know what that means it makes the structure 1894 years old and still standing still going strong
okay so the pantheon's dome is actually the largest unreinforced concrete structure in the
world still today even though it is almost 2000 years old the materials in the dome actually vary
and the thickness decreases as you get higher to the oculus the dome actually has a diameter of
about 44 meters which is the same as the height of the building slash the oculus which means you
can fit a perfect sphere inside of the pantheon there are also 16 granite columns behind me here
and they all weigh 60 tons each the columns are about 12 meters tall and have a diameter of 1.5
meters each so in feet that's about 40 feet tall and 5 feet in diameter to be honest the logistics
of getting the columns here is actually pretty amazing considering they were first
floated down the nile river in egypt to the port of Ostia which is about 25 kilometers from rome
city center or about 15 miles after they arrived in Ostia they were actually put on barges again
and transported all the way up the tiber river to rome they actually had to be dragged about
700 meters or more so almost half a mile to the construction site which is what you see
behind me so yes the central opening or the oculus remains open and it was never covered
that means it does rain inside of the Pantheon and the water falls through the ceiling onto the floor
and into the drainage system so i'm going to put a few close-ups for you guys there the floor is
actually inclined about 30 centimeters or 12 inches so that all the water runs off straight
into the drain so that's all the fun facts i have for you guys and now let's go inside
so guys i just came out of the pantheon and all i can say is wow like i really
missed going inside i didn't realize it until obviously, you know the pandemic happened and
you know things were closed but wow i got goosebumps when i walked inside it's just...
amazing like really breathtaking like wow well that's what i was missing for all those months
there was no line obviously i walked straight in i did the temperature checks that i showed you guys
and that was it and then i was inside with about maybe 15 or 20 people
but today is not really a busy day and i hope you guys were able to get a glimpse inside
to see the pantheon and just remember how beautiful exactly Rome is so if you haven't
already make sure to like this video subscribe to my channel and hit the notification bell so
you can notify every time i upload and i will see you guys in the next follow me video ciao y'all