While I always wish for no other tourists besides myself, in this case it helps to see the scale of these columns of the portico of the Pantheon. When it was built, it was lifted off the ground with steps up to it, and more space around it. The city of course, has crowded in around it, and the steps have been buried over time. The Pantheon if you don’t know was designed and built during the reign of Emperor Hadrian in 118-125 CE.