Item 06: Letters sent by Robert Christian Wilson to his family, 1918-April 1919 - Page 253
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[Page 253]
flat passage way, a yard or so wide before the next tier began.
About half way up, underneath one of the tiers a huge gallery had been cut, right round through the hill, and you could see the ruins of it, where it and the seats had been built up, and carried right accross the gully and up on to the opposite hill.
That gallery made it more realistic than anything, I think, as it was just what you read of, with its passages leading down into the centre of the arena, and, as I stood up by the governor's throne, and looked down on the scene below, I imagined I could see the old games being carried on before the thousands of spectators sitting round and could hear the wail of the christian captives chained in the dark galleries, waiting to be led down to the roaring lions, standing in the blood of former victims in the arena below.
However my camera would not see these sort of things; so I came back to present day life and took some snaps with it and what it saw in the arena was, Australian horses and Light Horse men some red cross cars, mostly Fords, ambulance carts, camels with Egyptian drivers and a squad of Indians on guard over some captured stores there. I hope the photos will be a success.