There are no windows at all in the Pantheon, but there is a large hole in the top of the saucer called an “eye” which looks toward heaven, and through this eye the sun shines and the rain falls. It is so high above the floor, however, that the rain scarcely wets the floor beneath, but evaporates before reaching it.

Most of the buildings in Rome that were built about the time of Christ are in ruins, but the Pantheon is still almost the same as it was when first built. Around and about the very old buildings the dust and dirt and rubbish of the city had collected for two thousand years and had gradually piled higher and higher until the ruins were twenty feet or more lower than the present city, so that it has been necessary to dig them out.

In those days long ago there was a great market-place in Rome called the Forum. Around the Forum were beautiful palaces, court-houses, temples, and arches. The arches were built so that generals, when they returned from the wars they had fought and won, might ride in triumph through them. One of these arches is called the Arch of Titus. Titus was a Roman Emperor who destroyed the capital city of the Jews called Jerusalem and this arch was built to celebrate the event. Another arch is the Arch of Constantine. Constantine was the first Emperor of Rome to believe in Christ. That was not until three hundred years after Christ had died.

The old Romans had a peculiar idea of fun. They liked to watch fights between men and wild animals such as lions and tigers, and they liked to see the men and animals kill each other. Sometimes the men were prisoners who had been captured in battle, sometimes they were just Christians whom the Roman Emperors wanted to put to death. So a great stadium was built where the Romans could sit in safety and watch these fights as we watch football or baseball games. This stadium is called the Colosseum and, though it is partly in ruins, most of it is still standing and you can still see the dens where the wild animals were kept before they were let loose into the arena.

As the Christians were afraid to worship above ground where the Romans would see them, they hid in secret cellar-like places where they could worship as they pleased. Just outside of Rome, underneath the ground, are miles upon miles of these cellar-like rooms where they worshiped and where they were buried when they died. They are called Catacombs. Millions of the Christians were buried in the Catacombs.