Tuesday, February 23, 2010

European Adventure Recap - The Pantheon (Interior Edition)

Sunday October 25, 2009
Paris, France

The Interior of the Pantheon is a series of intricately detailed columns and arches.

This is the interior of the large central dome, seen on the exterior.  It is encased in windows and separated by columns.  One single bright light in the very center of the dome shines.

If you look at the tops of the columns, you can see that they have what resembles nets hung just below the ceiling at the soffits.  From what we could tell, there were pieces of the ceiling falling off and these nets were a safety feature.

At the far end of the Pantheon was the altar. 

I searched and searched and couldn't figure out what exactly what the inscription above the altar means. 

On either side of the altar, there are very large statues...the pictures below show their size in comparison to the size of me and Shannon.

Another set of large statues

Shannon took this photo, standing under the large dome and looking towards the altar (that's me in all black in the center at the bottom of the photo).

"In 1851 physicist Léon Foucault demonstrated the rotation of the Earth by his experiment conducted in the Panthéon, by constructing the 67-meter...pendulum beneath the central dome."  (Source)

Along the walls are paintings depicting various scenes

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