To avoid prolixity any description of this vast structure must be very brief: it stands an oval cylinder, its outer major diameter 620 feet; and the greatest diameter of its inner arena 287. Its innumerable blocks of travertine are bound together by metal clamps; the exterior is faced with marble and adorned with hundreds more of those statues which populate Rome. The structure rises 157 feet in four stories. The lower three of these tiers are composed each of a series of eighty arches backed by piers. In the first story the flanking columns are Doric, the second Ionic, the third Corinthian. The fourth story has no arches but merely windows and pilasters of the “composite” order. Between these upper pilasters project stone brackets which hold lofty wooden masts for the great awnings that stretch over the arena. These masts and awnings (red, blue, and yellow) when spread out under a brilliant sky, make the Flavian look somewhat like an enormous galley under a cloud of sail--the effect, of course, being heightened by the sheen of the marbles of the exterior and the garish paint and gilding covering the statues. [Illustration: FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATER (COLOSSEUM): exterior, present state.] =336. Exterior and Ticket Entrances to the Flavian Amphitheater.=--Outside of the Amphitheater is a wide circular area whereon converge many thoroughfares. This open space is scattered with huckster’s booths and with small ticket stands much like those around many amusement places in another age.[214] Here one can place wagers, purchase programs for the day, obtain food to consume between the events, and very probably buy or hire cushions in case the stone benches prove too hard. Also on the outside and close to the foot of the main structure runs a high wooden palisade. This is to aid in controlling the crowds. You go in at one or two entrances, showing your tickets, then circle the masonry until you reach one of the staircases, located under every fourth arch, and next you can promptly mount to your reserved seat in one of the seventy-six sub-sections (_cunei_).