In Roman days, "going to the Circus" meant going to the chariot races, sort of like Formula One or NASCAR today. Chariot racing was the most popular form of entertainment in Roman days.
The Roman Circus of Merida was built out of the city to the south. While it is largely in ruins now, the circus held around 30,000 spectators. I mean it is in good enough shape now to get the gist of what it looked like back in the day, but there are not much left of the spectator seats.
It's huge -- 1300 feet in length and 98 feet wide, and the oval shape for racing is still quite obvious today.
It is believed to have been built around 20 BC. The main entrance and the triumph gate still exist, as do the tribunal of the judges.
Right near it is one of the two aqueducts ruins that remain. We never actually found the other one, as we were once again sent to the wrong place by the GPS, but we do believe we saw it in the distance. By that point, we were ready to move on.
The Aqueduct de los Milagros was built during the 1st century AD to bring water to Merida (obviously). The highlight of the aqueduct is that there is a huge stork nest on top of the last trestle. I'm not knocking it, as aqueducts are cool, but it pales in comparison to the aqueduct of Segovia, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (as it should be). The massive aqueduct of Segovia is captivating to me and worth a day trip to Segovia from Madrid. (It's only a 25 minute train trip from Madrid). And all of Segovia is incredible.
Apparently there are better views of it as it crosses a plaza in Merida, but I didn't know that at the time. Que sera, sera.
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