The Colosseum was a glorious showcase of the mighty Roman Empire – attracting kings and travellers, paupers and princes to its fantastic shows. The Colosseum itself is a marvel of engineering and ingenuity. For centuries, historians have wondered about the mysterious secrets of the Colosseum: How was this magnificent structure built? How did the Romans stage magnificent shows – from gladiatorial combats to mock sea battles, when the Colosseum sits in a valley that is hundreds of miles away from the sea? How does the amphitheatre stand intact centuries after it was made?

Discovery Channel will unravel the mystery on its show Unsolved History: The Roman Colosseum on 8 December at 8 pm.

The programme reveals the secret behind the magnificent shows hosted at the Colosseum. An underground basement called the Hypogeum, served as the command center for the Colosseum’s incredible stage shows. The Hypogeum had two floors, which were linked to the arena above by a network of human powered elevators.

The architectural ingenuity of the engineers who built the Colosseum is par excellence, as nothing of this colossal size has ever been built before or after. To understand the mother of all arenas, Unsolved History’s team of experts recreated a virtual Colosseum, which took a year, as the architectural complexity of the amphitheatre overwhelmed the fastest computers. The team first deconstructed this ancient masterpiece into smaller individual elements and then recreated a virtual version.

For the first time ever, Unsolved History reveals the remarkable engineering feat behind the staging of the legendary story of Naumachia, a fierce naval battle fought over sea, that was enacted in the Colosseum. Where did the Romans get four million gallons of water to recreate a sea? And how did they drain so much of water?