Due to their vast dimensions, these buildings
were mostly situated outside the town walls.
They comprised an arena (a track) divided into
two tracks by a wall decorated by sculptures
and tuns with an obelisk at the centre.

This barrier, sometimes called the spina, was
terminated at its two extremities by boundary
stones (called metae) which the charioteers strived
to turn as closely as possible, making this moment one
of the most spectacular of the race.

The racing teams (bigas or quadrigaes depending
on the number of horses) ran seven laps on the

track anticlockwise. A visual system (egg or dolphin
counters) kept spectators updated on how
many laps had been completed.
 

The race took off at the noble façade end in the carceres
(or starting gates) in the arched parts whose stalls were
fitted with spring doors. The gates were arranged on a curve
and the slightly uneven barrier meant that the charioteers
had the same distance to travel. The tracks were surrounded
by a wall, the podium, which was high enough to avoid danger
to spectators on the stands around the track. The modular
architectural structure (chambers with arched enclosures) was
very close to the construction of an amphitheatre.

location of the circus in the parcel plan of the town today

In Arles, the circus measures 101metres wide by 450 metres long
which made it capable of seating about 20,000 spectators

                                                                                   (Claude Sintes)

Reconstruction of the roman circus scale 1:100,
dimensions 1.50m x 4.50m in accordance with
the traces on the cadastral survey of the town of
Arles, with the excavations carried out on the site
since 1970 and with the monograph on the Roman
Empire circuses in John Humphrey's "Arenas for
Chariot Racing"

Executed in polyurethane resin moulded on models
machined by numerical control.

photo Michel Lacanaud