The Roman Stadium in Plovdiv

The Roman Stadium in Plovdiv is lying under the trading centre of the city, west of the Dzhumaya Mosque. It was built in the 2 A.D. like the stadium in Delphi. The ancient sports facility has the shape of a horseshoe, with 250 m length and 74 m width. The seats are for 30 000 people, arranged in 14 marble rows, which indicates what the size of the city was in the past. The most interesting competitions were the Pitian and the Aleksandrian Games, organized on the model of the old Greek Olympic Games. The basic events were discus and spear throwing, race, jumps, wrestling and shooting. The Games took place every 4 years and continued several days. In the end of the IV century the Stadium was used as a race course, because Emperor Teodosius I forbade the athletic games. Today the ancient sports facility is one of the many sight-seeings from Roman time in Plovdiv. https://maps.app.goo.gl/kz4C6m31rGw6s4pF9