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Comment by akolbe | Hacker News Reader

Here is a nice picture of the Pantheon, mentioned in the article as a prime example of these incredibly durable Roman concrete structures:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pantheon11111.jpg#/m...

Not bad for something built nearly 2,000 years ago.

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Uses pumice in aggregate as aerated mass to lighten the concrete and also varies concrete thickness by height in the dome to reduce load

And the concrete self-heals with water

I wonder what percentage of the original stones are left (given that it was repaired and restored over the centuries)

I don't believe the dome structure was radically altered across time. It's possible I misunderstood but my belief was it was only cosmetic changes to the dome itself. Other structural changes were made to the portico and doorways.

Unlike many ancient structures, the Pantheon has mostly been left intact across the millennia. The Dome is entirely original and so is most of the remaining structure. From what I know, the majority of the restoration and renovation work has been to the interior ground-level walls and some of the exterior along the ground level, but even these are mostly minor renovations. In this case, what you see truly is for the most part what always was, and especially for the main awe-inspiring part, the great dome.

The Pantheon is very notable among Roman monuments for having little done over the years other than cosmetic upgrades.

of the original Pantheon from 27 B.C. very little remained.

It was rebuilt after the fires of 80 A.C. and 110 A.C. damaged the original structure.

It's been mostly unchanged after that.

> Not bad for something built nearly 2,000 years ago.

According to the Pyramids, Stonehenge, Newgrange, Watson Brake, et al., it's a little premature to suggest that. Let's check back in 3,000 years.

Hehe, that's funny. But the OP clearly meant it relative to other stuff built 2000 years ago, most of which has vanished without leaving a trace, maybe a couple of foundation stones buried under a meter of new topsoil.

Have an upvote, it's sad to see you grayed out.

stone != concrete

edit: we have a > 2,000 years old pyramid in Rome too, and it's in perfect shape, because stone != concrete

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Ci...

What it is: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Cestius

Funny, its perimeter vs. height approximates pi, rather than the originals' 2pi.

The pyramids are essentially just piles of rocks. The impressive part about them is not really how they stood out the test of time, in fact they lost most of their finer details, but how an ancient civilization managed to make piles of rocks that big.

The Pantheon is not a pile of rocks, it is made of engineered materials (concrete), with domes and overhangs. Unlike "pile of rocks" architecture that essentially can't fail, if it wasn't well engineered, it would have collapsed into something unrecognizable.

It doesn't matter how many times I see it, every time I go to Rome and find myself in front of the Pantheon, I get overwhelmed by it.

With zero sarcasm, when I read “every time I go to Rome” I feel that I took a wrong turn in life somewhere.

Fucking awesome mate.

Well, I lived in Italy for 10 years. Going to Rome from time to time wasn't that hard.

Now I live in Spain and I continue to fly to Rome now and then.

In Europe, distances are easy to overcome.

In Europe, 100km is a long way; in the US, 100 years is a long time.

Do you mean 1000km? The thread is about Rome being easy to reach.

It's just a saying, having the same number on both ends (but measuring different things) is the part that is supposed to make you think it's clever ;)

Unless you fly ryanair for 10$

If you fly Ryanair, 20 minutes is like 100 years.

It's not the distance but the congestion on the highways. We need someone like Elon Musk to give us the HyperLoop

Italy is wonderful, you should go, only problem is that they speak Italian.

Well, it's also wonderful they speak Italian!

But they drive Italian too. Ho well.

Drive confidently but attentively and you fit in beautifully.

Source: tried it myself.

Can't confirm. Drive unsafely like the worst drivers in LA and you'll fit right in but still be miserable.

Hah.

Probably practice is needed, but your holidays are too short for that.

There's objective aspects of safe driving like leaving enough distance between vehicles (depending on speed) that are wildly ignored. You might get used to that in practice but that doesn't make it safer.

I was thinking about chaotic Italian road crossings. Or, to give another example, l'Arc de Triomphe in Paris. People tend to communicate with their cars where they want to drive and I understand that foreigners find this aggressive.

I was not thinking about excessive speeds or tailgating.

In Southern Italy, when you are stuck in a traffic jam in the city, you just drive nearer to other cars, and this is only mildly dangerous because you don't have high speeds.

If you don't drive tight enough, you just can't proceed because some other car will take your place.

This is not tailgating or driving recklessly.

I was more thinking about me being tailgated at 2 ft distance and then overtaken on an extremely narrow mountain road near Arco. People were honking while doing this so people in the oncoming lane around the bend could start breaking (I was told by a local). Happened all the time in the cumulative month I spent there, never got used to it.

Lots of crosses remembering dead drivers on the side of the roads too.

Spanish and Italian sound great to me, even though I don't speak them. They sound, well, human. Can't say the same about English or German

I think this is meant to be funny but it upsets me a little bit to be honest. Learning at least some basics of the country's language is travelling 101 to me. Going abroad and expecting the locals to speak my language is a very rude thing and a display of disrespect in my opinion.

Worth remembering that “Going to Rome” has a very different feel to it if you live in Terni vs if you live in Whichita, Kansas. One is a day trip to shop, the other might be an adventure of a lifetime.

I was born in an East European country and I worked a few years in New York. Many people back at home react to this fact as if I made it. As if shoveling software on Lafayette street makes you a better software engineer than doing the same on the Rákóczi Körút. On the other hand for many people living and working in New York is nothing special. They were born there, it is their normal.

I for one think where you were is not as important as what you made of your time there.

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