History feed
50,000
Yes. The Colosseum, opened in AD 80, was fitted with a velarium, a vast canvas awning stretched on ropes from masts around the top. It shaded many of the estimated 50,000 or more spectators.
2,500
Cleopatra lived closer to the 1969 Moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid. The pyramid was already about 2,500 years old when she was born.
4,000
A surviving population of woolly mammoths lived on Wrangel Island while Egyptians were building the Great Pyramid. These Arctic animals persisted until about 4,000 years ago, long after most mainland populations disappeared.