Once believed to be a myth, the gargantuan circular construct, with a surface area spanning three million times that of Earth, had captured the imagination of explorers and scholars alike.
To the east stands a grand circular building, in the style of an Ethiopian monastery, made for the national bank in the 1960s during the modernising phase of Emperor Haile Selassie's reign.
Building work on the amphitheatre, which initially could hold an audience of over 50,000 people, was commenced around 72 AD using money which had been acquired by plundering Judaea as the Jewish Revolt was suppressed.
The building's rotunda – that round room underneath the dome – is also used, in addition to having tourists come in and look at it, as a place where important people, when they die, lie in state.