Original subtitles

[narrator] In Panama,

a military base on the front lines against a drug-running tyrant.

A ruthless dictator. CIA meddling, narco kingpins, you name it.

This story's got it all.

[narrator] In Italy, a life cut short turns a utopian dream into a nightmare.

Was the death the result of nefarious activities from a foreign power?

[narrator] And in Poland, a grim facility caught between the treachery of two regimes.

[Prof. Michele] The people held here fought against the very worst in humanity

and were jailed for it.

[dramatic music playing]

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Decaying relics,

ruins of lost worlds...

Sites haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting to be revealed.

In Panama, on the outskirts of the capital,

a random collection of buildings tells a complex story of conquest.

[Rob] In the shadow of the bridge of Americas

is what appears to be a public park,

but have a closer look and you'll see some strange remains.

There's a lot of long rectangular buildings.

They were clearly built with some purpose in mind.

But there's very little left to suggest what exactly that might be.

[narrator] More structures nearby point to an official function.

You see the word "Polizia" and we understand that this must have been

a Panamanian police building of some sort.

When you look at the pitting here, people have been shooting this place up.

And you don't shoot up your own base.

For many years, this country had very close ties with the US.

But in the 1980s, those ties were stretched to breaking point.

It is as though Manuel Noriega wants to force

George Bush Sr.

into having a war in Panama.

This place has changed immensely. It's not what it used to be.

The houses were nicely painted. Everything was new.

Grass was green.

[narrator] Ricardo Eva was a soldier and interpreter in the US Army.

When he was first stationed here in 1984,

the country was a very different place.

[Ricardo] Everything was American right here in the heart of Panama.

There were a lot of families living here. Life was idyllic.

[narrator] The only reason these buildings exist at all is because of one thing...

the Panama Canal.

[Rob] The canal was built by the Americans in the early 1900s.

And under the terms of the agreement with Panama,

they were granted ownership, in perpetuity,

of a 553-square-mile area of land called the Canal Zone.

This was America's first step onto the world stage as an imperial great power.

Unsurprisingly, an investment of this size needed protecting.

[narrator] In 1913, at the end of this highway,

huge gun batteries were installed

to guard the Pacific entrance of the Panama canal.

And here, administrative and housing facilities were built.

It was called Fort Amador.

[Ricardo] Whenever you pass from Panama to the Canal Zone area,

it's a totally different world.

We had our own commissaries, little stores, theaters,

bowling alleys, swimming pools, you name it, we had everything here.

[Rob] Amongst Panamanians, especially as we moved into the 1960s,

there was resentment that started to grow at this American presence.

So, the United States used to guard this area very jealously

to a point where it became a problem for Panamanian citizens to cross

the Panama Canal to go to the other side of their own country,

because we had Canal Zone police officers that could stop you at will.

[narrator] On January 9, 1964, tensions boiled over

when a group of angry Panamanian students

marched into the Canal Zone and tried to raise the Panamanian flag

next to the stars and stripes.

[Prof. Wawro] It unleashed this riot between the two groups.

Over 20 people killed and several 100 injured in this fighting.

That was a spark that ignited the nationalism in Panama.

[narrator] The rising wave of anti-American sentiment eventually forced the US

back to the negotiating table.

In 1977, an historic, new canal treaty was agreed upon.

[Dr. Lynette] There was gonna be a phased withdrawal

of American armed forces from the Panama Canal Zone

and on the last day of 1999,

the Panama Canal itself will become sovereign Panamanian territory.

[Rob] Fort Amador became a jointly-operated base

with the north side remaining as US housing,

and much of the south side was turned over to the Panamanian forces.

[narrator] Relations were strained, but hadn't yet reached a breaking point.

That time came in the 1980s, when a power-hungry military leader

seized control of Panama.

[Prof. Wawro] Manuel Noriega was absolutely ruthless,

and someone who was determined to retain power at all costs.

So, he creates the PDF, the Panamanian Defense Force.

And this is gonna be under his personal control.

[narrator] During this time, areas of Fort Amador

became a dangerous place for Americans.

[Ricardo] The PDF were pretty much under orders

to harass us Americans that were here in Panama.

He put his strategic buildings and headquarters all throughout this area,

and that's what converted it pretty much into a no-go zone.

It was one of Noriega's ways of thumbing his nose at the US.

"Look, you used to be here. Now I'm here and you're not allowed here any longer."

[narrator] But Noriega's relationship with the United States

was complicated,

dating back to around 1958.

[Rob] Allegedly, he was recruited by the CIA initially

whilst studying at a military academy in Peru.

And from there, he went on to forge close ties with Washington.

[Prof. Wawro] Noriega was a very useful client

because Panama was a place where the United States could,

you know, base a lot of its anti-Communist activity in Central America.

[narrator] Noriega also provided the CIA valuable information

on drug cartel activity.

[Prof. Wawro] But the Americans became aware

that Noriega wasn't working against the cartels.

In fact, he was working with the cartels

and making big profits by shipping drugs into the United States.

[Rob] By this point, Washington's relationship with Noriega was over,

and they wanted him out.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] In the late 1980s,

the United States demanded that Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega

step down from office, after his close ties with the cartels came to light.

Noriega remained defiant.

[Rob] On December 15, 1989

Noriega even went as far as declaring

that a state of war existed between America and Panama.

The day after, a marine is killed by Noriega's people.

The United States said, "You know what, this is it.

We can no longer deal with this."

[narrator] At 1:00 am, on December 20, Operation Just Cause begins.

The objectives of the US invasion are clear.

Protect American lives, preserve the integrity of the Panama Canal,

and apprehend Manuel Noriega.

Fort Amador is a key battleground.

This was one of Noriega's main headquarters.

Operationally, we had to take this building.

We had a couple of Apache helicopters flying around,

and they shot off the rooves.

While ground troops, 82nd Airborne, surrounded this whole area.

[Prof. Wawro] And then they're pinned down for a while by snipers,

but then they start moving in to Fort Amador.

[Ricardo] You're scared, they're scared. What's gonna happen?

There's bullets flying all over the place.

[gunfire]

After issuing warnings to surrender, the US military

bring out the big guns and start shelling the PDF barracks.

[Dr. Lynette] The Panamanian National Guard hasn't got a chance.

It is a decisive victory for the United States

in record time.

[Ricardo] About three hours, we had everything under control.

People who were in this building, we detained them.

We had them sitting here, of course, with their hands tied, and all that.

[narrator] But Noriega was nowhere to be found.

A few days later, he turned up,

hiding out at the Vatican Embassy in Panama City.

And what happened next was one of the most bizarre scenes of the invasion.

The Americans pull up some loudspeakers mounted on the back of vehicles,

and they blast the loudest rock music they can find.

[Prof. Geoffrey] Noriega, believe it or not, actually likes classical music,

and then after some time, Noriega says, "I'm done."

And he comes out with his hands up and surrenders to American Forces.

[narrator] In 1992, the fallen dictator was found guilty of drug trafficking

and sentenced to 40 years in a federal prison.

Seven years later, in December 1999,

the now democratic country took full control of the Panama Canal.

[Rob] When the Americans left, Fort Amador, no longer needed,

fell into complete disrepair.

But the ghosts of American imperialism live on.

[narrator] Noriega served 17 years in a US prison,

and was eventually extradited back to Panama to face charges there.

He died in 2017.

But, ultimately, it was not without cost,

this American intervention against him.

[narrator] Official estimates suggest 500 civilians were killed

during Operation Just Cause.

Unofficial estimates say the death toll was much higher.

[Ricardo] The damage was huge.

Actually, I felt sad seeing all that

because I don't believe the ends justify the means

at all. I don't believe it.

[narrator] In Warsaw, Poland, is a secretive facility that struck fear

into the hearts of the city's residents.

[Jim] We see this complex building behind a tall wall.

There's not that much to distinguish them from the rest of the city,

but the other buildings don't have barbed wire around them,

or bars on the windows.

And there are multiple housing blocks,

some of them connected by sky bridges.

[narrator] Inside, the function of this compound quickly becomes clear.

But all is not as it seems.

[Jim] The prison was built to house common criminals, but almost from the start,

it took on a political dimension.

The cells look really sparse and dank, like literal hell holes.

And there's a spooky corridor that leads into a boiler room.

[Prof. Wawro] But you have this very eerie sense when you walk in

that something far worse was going on here.

[narrator] These rooms hide the stories of innocent victims

considered "inconvenient" by the government.

[Prof. Michele] In a different set of circumstances,

many of the Polish inmates would be revered, national heroes.

I can only imagine what it must have felt like being taken prisoner,

not knowing what was gonna happen. Were they going to be killed,

were they going to be tortured, would they ever return?

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] Historian Dr. Alex Richie is an expert on this prison's dark history.

Her interest goes much deeper than just scholarly curiosity.

This cell was inhabited by my father-in-law, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski.

He spent almost six years of his life in this prison.

[narrator] His only crime was fighting to save his country.

He was only 23 years old, and the things that happened to him

were absolutely terrible.

[narrator] This is Mokotow Prison.

The events that tied Wladyslaw's fate

to this cruel facility began with the outbreak of WWII.

At the start of the conflict, the Soviet Union, not yet fighting with the Allies,

made a side deal with Nazi Germany.

Poland was in the crosshairs of this pact, not only not to go to war with each other,

but to, essentially, split up the spoils of Europe.

So, the Nazis invaded Poland from the west.

The Soviets invaded from the east.

[narrator] Hitler's well-trained forces

quickly took Poland's capital, Warsaw.

But the Polish people didn't give up the fight.

[Dr. Richie] They create an underground army, military,

the Home Army, eventually, it's called.

They were fighting for a free Poland.

[Prof. Wawro] These people are priests, they're army officers,

they're school teachers, they're college professors.

And they're seeded throughout Polish society.

[narrator] Alex's father-in-law, Wladyslaw,

joined the Polish Home Army in 1942.

For the next two years, he risked his life fighting in a guerilla war

against the Nazi occupiers.

By 1944, the tide seemed to be turning.

[Jim] It was becoming obvious that Germany was losing control

over the territories that it had occupied.

[Dr. Richie] The Warsaw uprising broke out on August 1, 1944.

And the main aim for the Poles was to try and take over

as many important buildings, bridges, airports as they possibly could.

It was a gamble, and they threw everything that they had

into taking the city back.

[narrator] But the Polish resistance was no match for the Germans.

One hope was that the Soviet army now siding with the Allies,

was nearing Warsaw and would come to Poland's aid.

The Poles had allied themselves to the British and to the Western Allies

but, of course, by definition, to the Soviets as well.

And so, they went and fought, thinking that they were allies.

[narrator] But Poland hadn't banked

on the treachery of one of history's most notorious dictators.

In the final days of the Second World War,

in Nazi-occupied Warsaw,

the Polish resistance was being crushed.

The only ones who could stop the destruction were approaching Red Army.

But the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, had other plans for Poland.

The Soviets made no effort to intervene and help the Poles,

and get the Germans out of there and save the city of Warsaw.

Eighty-five percent of Warsaw is destroyed during the rising,

while the Soviets are sitting on the hulls of their tanks

on the outskirts of the city just, like, watching.

[Dr. Richie] Stalin always had an ulterior motive, and that was political control.

He wanted to create a buffer zone between Russia and the rest of Europe.

[Prof. Wawro] The Soviets were happy to see the Germans do their dirty work for them.

"Kill all these Polish nationalists." Then the Soviets roll in,

so they could take over this passive, defeated population

and easily bring them into the Soviet Empire.

[narrator] When the Red Army entered the ruined city,

Mokotow Prison is one of the few buildings left standing.

It was quickly transformed into a notorious tool of Communist repression.

The first thing that the Soviets do is they create a Ministry of Public Security.

Very Orwellian name.

It has nothing to do with public security.

It has to do with public persecution.

They wanna find every remnant of the Polish nationalist movement.

They either wanna, like, kill them, or they wanna convert them

to, you know, passive pawns of the Soviet state.

[Dr. Richie] The Home Army represented a huge threat for Stalin

because they represented Western democratic values

in the sense of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion.

[narrator] Alex's father-in-law, Wladyslaw, was one of those rounded up

and imprisoned without trial during Stalin's violent purge.

From this cell, he remembers hearing people being executed.

So, they didn't know what was going on, had no idea.

And then, all of a sudden, would hear this loud shot ringing out.

You didn't know if you were going to be next.

And this was all part of the fear that was generated in this prison.

[narrator] The torture didn't end there.

[Dr. Wawro] One of the most disgusting ironies of this Soviet conquest

is that they then take Polish nationalists who'd been fighting so bravely

against the Nazis to free their country,

and they put these Polish nationalists in cells with German Nazis

in Mokotow Prison, as if they're just as bad.

[Dr. Richie] My father-in-law was in Auschwitz.

And for him, the experience of Auschwitz was, by far,

the worst he ever experienced in his life.

Just two doors down was the prison cell of Hoss,

who was the commandant of Auschwitz.

This was to humiliate and demean the Polish prisoners.

In other words, they were made to think that they were even below

Nazi criminals.

[narrator] It isn't known how many political prisoners were killed by the Soviets,

but their intention was clear.

They wanted to completely rewrite the story

of the Second World War in Poland.

[Dr. Richie] Mention of the heroic stance

of the Polish Home Army against the Nazis

was completely forbidden.

There was, under Stalinism, no Holocaust.

Everybody who was killed in the Second World War

was simply a victim of Fascism.

[narrator] When Wladyslaw was released in 1954,

he defied the Communist authorities

by dedicating himself to keeping the story of the Home Army alive.

He wrote books about what had happened during the war.

Many of the things he wrote were either censored heavily or not published at all.

[narrator] This facility continued to house perceived enemies of the regime

until Communism collapsed in 1989.

[Dr. Richie] Finally, people were free to actually talk about these things,

and go into archives and interview survivors, for example,

and actually put together a story that, in a way, had been frozen

by the Soviet system since 1945.

[narrator] After the Democratic Republic of Poland

was established in 1990,

Mokotow Prison continued to operate.

In 2016, it closed for good.

Wladyslaw spent his final years

building a brighter future for Poland

as part of the newly Democratic government.

[Dr. Richie] So, he had an incredible career. I mean, going from

a young man in Soviet prison,

and then ending up in a free Poland as Foreign Minister

and a minister of high office until the day he died.

So, it was an extraordinary life.

[narrator] In Italy, the town of Ivrea hides pockets of revolutionary zeal.

[Martin] It looks like any other normal Italian town,

that is until you notice the modern architecture that's in the middle of it.

[Hadley] Miles of glass dot the landscape,

and there's this mismatch of buildings spread throughout the town.

[Martin] One of the structures looks like a typewriter.

Who would build a building to look like a typewriter?

You can tell that a lot of work went on right here,

but you can't really tell what it was.

[narrator] Below the surface, rumors still swirl of ruthless espionage...

and a death under mysterious circumstances.

What's strange is that an autopsy

was never requested or carried out.

Some people think that the CIA was involved.

[narrator] What was it about this sleepy country town

that might've been worth killing for?

[dramatic music playing]

[soft music playing]

Matteo Olivetti is part of the centuries-old family

that transformed the northwest Italian town of Ivrea.

I came here in 1972 and all these buildings

when I was small, they were full of people.

[narrator] It's all part of a utopian community created by Matteo's ancestors.

[Martin] The Olivetti family is a corporate dynasty

that is associated with the development of cutting-edge technologies,

reaching all the way back to the era of innovation in the mid-19th century.

[narrator] Back then, Matteo's great grandfather

was a visionary electrical engineer.

Camillo Olivetti saw great potential in typewriters

and decided to capitalize on it.

Everything starts here in Ivrea,

and in 1908, Camillo puts up the Olivetti factory of typewriters.

Camillo Olivetti designed the first Olivetti typewriter.

It was known for the fact that it was composed of over 3,000 parts,

and yet it weighed only 40 pounds.

[narrator] In 1933, Camilo brought in his son, Adriano, to manage the firm.

[Martin] Under his leadership, when he took over the company,

the company's productivity soared.

And by 1933, Olivetti was producing half of Italy's typewriters.

[Hadley] But the rise of a brutal dictator

threatened to destroy everything he had built.

[narrator] As the Second World War loomed,

Benito Mussolini ruled Italy with an iron fist.

[Martin] The Olivetti family was in a precarious position

under the Fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini.

And that's because they were Jewish,

and the dictatorship was anti-Semitic.

But typewriters were as important then as computers are today.

And Olivetti offered Mussolini's government an Italian-made typewriter,

and they needed them in large quantities.

[narrator] The Olivetti factory produced typewriters throughout the war.

But by 1944, Adriano had fallen out of favor with Mussolini,

who imprisoned him.

Adriano had to do a daring escape from jail to Switzerland.

[narrator] He stayed in neutral Switzerland 'til the end of the war,

returning to Italy in 1945.

[Hadley] When he came back, he decided to transform his company,

and he really put in place democratic ideals

and used that as a way to change how his workers lived and operated and worked.

[Martin] He commissions some of the brightest architectural minds in Europe

to design a city for his company.

[Hadley] He wanted to make it a wonderful place to be,

a wonderful place to work, a wonderful place to be a member of a community.

[Prof. Michele] Employees were promised flexible working hours, free child care,

cultural activities, perks, and bonuses.

Who wouldn't wanna work here?

[narrator] This complex is Adriano Olivetti's vision for a new way of life.

Matteo remembers Ivrea's social services building,

the beating heart of his uncle's utopia.

We needed a real space for all the welfare of all the people that worked for us,

for the factory.

This building was the epitome of Adriano's philosophy.

It housed a library, a nursery, healthcare centers and an auditorium.

There was the infermiera, and I remember when we knew all the doctors.

This was the library, and I remember when I was a little kid,

I would come here and get books.

[narrator] To fund his utopian vision,

Adriano continued to push the boundaries of technological invention.

He decides that computers are the future.

[Prof. Michele] He ventured into electronics,

collaborating with Chinese-Italian chief engineer, Mario Tchou.

[narrator] Olivetti was soon outstripping the competition.

In 1959, Adriano unveiled one of the world's first mainframe computers.

With all revolutionary brilliant ideas,

there's always someone out there who wants to steal them.

[Matteo] There was a lot of Communists in Italy,

and so this was a big problem.

[narrator] With Cold War tensions growing,

there were some global powers that felt threatened by Olivetti.

[Martin] The United States is already concerned

that Italy might ultimately go Communist.

And that concern reaches a higher level of escalation

when they realize that the Olivettis have this high-end computer technology.

[Prof. Michele] In February 1960, Adriano boarded a train to Switzerland,

but he would never make it to his destination, for he died suddenly en route.

What's strange is that an autopsy is never requested or carried out.

His official cause of death is a stroke.

[narrator] Yet, many believed there was more to Adriano Olivetti's death

than meets the eye.

[dramatic music playing]

In 1960s Italy, during the depths of the Cold War,

the untimely death of computer industrialist Adriano Olivetti

was met with suspicion.

It doesn't seem to me to be an absurd stretch of possibility

that the CIA may have carried out a pointed assassination

against Adriano Olivetti,

over this issue of this critical technology

becoming something that provides an advantage for the Communists.

[narrator] But the sinister occurrences were far from over.

A year later, Mario Tchou, his chief engineer dies in a tragic car accident.

It came out that somebody said that there was smell of alcohol in the car,

but he didn't drink.

And then, a lot of little things that make you think,

"Hmm, maybe something happened

more than just a car accident."

[Martin] There's no proof.

But, when you look closely at the circumstances of that accident,

it certainly does look suspicious.

[narrator] The double tragedy marked a turning point for the Olivetti family.

In 1963, a financial crisis hit Italy,

and a year later,

the Olivettis sold off their computer division to General Electric.

The next year, the company reveals a world-changing invention

that it had heretofore kept secret.

[Hadley] In 1965, at the New York World's Fair,

the Programma 101 made its debut.

Programma 101 is considered by many to be the first desktop computer.

[Prof. Michele] Forty thousand of these P-101s were sold.

And it was even used in the Apollo 11 mission of NASA.

[Martin] But, by the 1980s, as computer technology ultimately takes over,

people need typewriters less.

The company eventually stops manufacturing them altogether.

In 1978, we were more or less 90,000 people in the world.

And now it's 500.

[woman] Ivrea's abandoned by 2003.

But its name has been immortalized by its pioneering design

and its visionary family.

[narrator] Today, Matteo is determined

to keep his family's unique experiment alive.

I try to keep up this history of the family. That's the important thing.

[Martin] It's one of the most successful commercial industrial towns in the world,

and that becomes, eventually, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

[narrator] In northeast Africa,

in the Tunisian town of El Jem,

a colossal building bears witness to ancient rivalries.

Right in the middle of town, we have a massive Roman structure.

[Luke] You pass through these outer walls and enter this vast oval floor

surrounded by stadium seating. This was a place to put on a show.

And what entertainment did the Romans enjoy more than gladiatorial games?

[narrator] But this was much more than an arena for savage Roman spectacle.

Its remarkable size hints at its intended purpose.

This is one of the biggest, grandest amphitheaters in the entire Roman world.

Why do we have this here in Africa?

[narrator] The answer may lie in one of the most violent periods of Roman history.

It became known as The Year of the Six Emperors.

There was murder, there was ruin,

and it was all happening right here in El Jem.

[narrator] Archeologist Rached Hamdi decodes this site

to piece together what was happening almost 2,000 years ago

[Rached speaking own language]

[interpreter] At the start of the 3rd century,

a decision was made to build a stadium,

one like the great Colosseum in Rome.

Today, it's still a shining example

of Roman creativity and engineering.

[Luke in English] It had three levels of galleries,

which could fit 35,000 people.

[narrator] It's thought the mighty structure

was adorned with statues of Roman Gods,

had 64 arches,

120-foot high red limestone walls,

and might even have had sails for a roof.

The town it towers over offers a clue as to why this iconic structure is here.

Today, it's known as El Jem. But under the Romans, it was known as Thysdrus.

This was one of the wealthiest and most thriving parts of the empire.

[narrator] El Jem sat in the province the Romans called Africa.

It allowed vital access to the strategically important Mediterranean coast.

[Rached speaking own language]

[interpreter] This building reveals the significance of this city.

and the power of its influence back in the senate in Rome.

[narrator] At the time of El Jem's construction,

treacherous rivalries were sending shockwaves across the Roman empire.

Emperors were overthrown. New emperors were appointed.

There was conflict in the Roman empire.

[narrator] In Tunisia, El Jem's coliseum

dates back to a time of bitter infighting in the Roman empire.

This amphitheater was built in the year 238 CE.

This was a very important and dangerous year for the Roman empire.

[narrator] When the emperor in Rome decided to fund his warring campaigns

by taxing the people of El Jem, they rebelled

and demanded their governor, Gordian I, be put on the Imperial throne.

At 80 years old, he reluctantly agreed,

but only on the condition that his son would rule alongside him.

[narrator] But when his son was killed in battle, Gordian took his own life.

[Dominic] Gordian hanged himself with a belt just 22 days into his reign.

The shortest reign in Roman history.

This was one of six changes in rule that year.

[narrator] From the ashes of this chaos,

Gordian's grandson rose to take the throne.

It's thought by some

that Gordian III may have constructed the mammoth amphitheater

to immortalize his family.

It wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that archeologists discovered

the true extent of the dynastic monument.

[Rached speaking own language]

[interpreter] Below the tons of dirt that covered the site

and the floor of the fighting arena,

they found a huge underground area.

[in English] What they found was an intact basement level

that covered the entire footprint of the arena.

[narrator] Nearby, ancient mosaics

suggest why this basement was so big.

In Gordian's time, El Jem was at the center of a highly-lucrative

and well-organized trade in wild animals

that professional animal hunters

caught in the interior of Africa.

Many thousands of leopards, elephants and other African animals

would have passed through the subterranean corridors of El Jem.

You came here to watch gladiators and wild animals killing each other.

[narrator] The basement was designed to ensure

that games ran with chilling efficiency.

[Rached speaking own language]

[interpreter] Down here, it was a hive of activity,

where the prisoners and gladiators waited to meet their fate.

[Dr. Lynette in English] We have all of the hidden chambers necessary to create

the very best in Roman spectacle.

[narrator] Below the arena floor,

Rached Hamdi finds evidence of how it worked.

[Rached speaking own language]

[interpreter] The stone blocks in this room were probably used to stabilize the cages

of vicious and predatory wild animals.

Then, more cages lifted the animals up to the arena from here.

They carried them up to the spectacular events

taking place in the stadium above,

where the audience loved watching gladiators fighting wild animals.

[narrator] The Gordian amphitheater stamped the family's mark

on the city until the Romans lost power, two centuries later.

By the Middle Ages, Rome's influence in north Africa had ceased,

and the empire had fallen.

Once this was no longer a provincial capital, it was abandoned.

[narrator] Over the coming centuries, the people of El Jem

plundered the stones of the mighty coliseum, leaving it to crumble.

Today, the residents of El Jem make full use of the ancient monument.

[Rached speaking own language]

[interpreter] It's an iconic structure,

both in the city of El Jem and in Africa as a whole.

and it's an important symbol of modern-day Tunisia.