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Cars Passing the Colosseum, Rome, Italy, 1981

Photo: Colosseum in Rome

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Colosseum was built to host gladiator duels, battle reenactments, and other public spectacles. Now, the 50,000-seat stone-and-concrete amphitheater serves Rome in another capacity: as a traffic circle.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Down the Ancient Appian Way," June 1981, National Geographic magazine)

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Photograph by O. Louis Mazzatenta

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