Half way along this brick wall is seen a part of one of the narrow piers of travertine which go from the top to the bottom of the building, to carry the upper gallery at that enormous height, as the engineers were afraid to trust the soft tufa wall with the facing of brick. A little further on the right is seen the opening between the brick wall of the gallery and the stone wall of the corridor; the light is seen shining through the opening, which is here about three inches wide, and there is no bonding anywhere between the brick wall of the gallery and the stone wall of the corridor. Towards the south end of the building on this level, in at least two instances, the stone piers have been carried away for building materials, and the lower part of the brick wall, through which it had been cut, stands just as well without it as with it. The object of this tall stone pier was to carry the upper gallery only, not to support the old walls of the lower galleries[245]. THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE III. SUPERSTRUCTURE AND SUBSTRUCTURE. [Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM IN 1812] DESCRIPTION OF PLATE III. SUPERSTRUCTURE AND SUBSTRUCTURE. The Interior as it appeared in 1812, when _partially_ excavated by order of the French Government. This view, taken from an engraving of the period, helps to explain what follows, but the excavations at that time were only carried to the depth of ten feet, and the original pavement was found only (in 1874) at the depth of twenty-one feet from the foot of the _podium_, which is on the ordinary level of the soil. Consequently, we only have here visible the surface, with the central passage and the two canals on each side of it, and the side passage round the edge just under the _podium_. The square openings for the lifts for men and dogs are seen on each side of the central passage. The ruins of the brick galleries are also seen much as they remain now. The view is taken from above, at the north end. It is singular that the engineers at that time did not see that they had excavated the tops of arches of which the lower parts were still buried, yet the same thing is clearly seen in the excellent set of drawings made for the French Government at the time, and now preserved in the British Museum. In these all the details are given with exact measurements, and yet they appear not to have seen that they had excavated the tops of a series of arches and left the rest buried. THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE IV. SUBSTRUCTURES IN 1874. INTERIOR, AT THE SOUTH-EAST END. VIEW IN THE PASSAGES. [Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM IN 1874. INTERIOR S.E. END.—THE PASSAGES] DESCRIPTION OF PLATE IV. THE COLOSSEUM IN 1874. SUBSTRUCTURE. INTERIOR, AT THE SOUTH-EAST END. VIEW IN THE PASSAGES.