“This stoa received its name (poikile, ‘painted’) from the series of large paintings which decorated its walls. These were painted on wooden panels by the three great Athenian painters of the day, Polygnotus, Micon and Panaenus. The paintings...
“The porch has sixteen Egyptian grey and red granite columns, each 40 Roman feet in height and weighing about 84 tons. […] The diameter and height of the rotunda are exactly the same, 43.2 metres [meters] (140 feet). […] The walls of the...