Emily Chan
In northern Spain, a large Roman venue known as a circus that held horse-drawn chariot races was discovered by researchers.
During aerial investigations at Iruña-Veleia, an ancient Roman city located in the Álava province of the Basque Autonomous Community, the circus’s outline was detected.
The circus is about 920 feet long by 235 feet wide. It is estimated that the venue could accommodate around 5,000 spectators.
The project was led by the Provincial County of Álava and the Basque regional government. The Spanish software technology startup Arkikus documented the circus during a survey of an area that covered more than 620 acres.
The area was mapped using a remote sensing method known as light detection and ranging (LiDAR).
Drones captured images of the area. Researchers also examined historical and modern aerial photography of the site.
LiDAR involves the firing of laser pulses at the ground to produce three-dimensional models of a landscape.
The technique can map the topography while also revealing features that are not visible to the human eye.
This is the third known Roman circus to be discovered in the northern half of the Iberian Peninsula. The other two were found in the ancient settlements of Tarraco and Calagurris.
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