Planet Midnight Star: The Grand Coliseum by Syd Baker

The Midnight Star is a very cold, very old and barren planet, apparently uninhabited, and the Coliseum is one of the few ruins discovered so far of a long departed civilization.
This gigantic structure is created out of a single mountain, and it appears to be a type of race course, or a consecutive series of smaller arenas or training grounds. Possible seating as carved levels for over a million beings our size, less if they were larger in size, more if they were avian. There are no indications of dwellings as we know them, so maybe they just commuted for scheduled events. It’s difficult to date, as no artifacts have been found so far.

This image is a close-up near the top of the center on the morning of our first expedition inside. There are steps all over the inside, some purely decoration it seems, but it certainly was easy to explore once we got over the outer wall. No Doors!

Here we see one of the six interior sections, or arenas, looking in towards the center from atop the outer wall; this one is worth a long close look, the details are intense.

They could have aerial ballet in one, movies or concerts in another, a stone-ball match in yet another, or pod races that went round the whole course, the place is really huge, this one section is almost 3/4 mile across from gate to gate, and the walls are about 2000 feet tall.
I can almost imagine the crowd, vendors selling snacks and souvenirs, officials and teams and beasties and vehicles down on the field, no guard rails so maybe these folks were avian, so falling was not an issue, plus our away team could find no entrances outside, so it’s up-and-over the wall.

I love the idea of an alien sports stadium, locker rooms, a raised area down in the center for officials or royalty, box seats, bleachers, and outside, could it be a parking lot?

This image was taken on the outside of the structure as we headed back to the shuttle, the coliseum is perfectly round with striated vertical walls, and these terraced divided areas all around the outside resemble huge parking lot divided into an astonishing variety of spaces to accommodate any assortment of vehicles or beasts.

We will indeed try our best to determine the uses for such a magnificent facility, and which races and peoples participated, and how.

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