The elliptical site is 178m (584 feet) wide at its widest point, just ten metres less than the Coliseum which was built 40 years later.

"With an estimated capacity of 30,000 to 50,000, it was built for gladiatorial combat during the reigns of emperors Claudius and Nero in the first Century, some 50 years after Christ," Desiderio Vaquerizo Gil, professor of archaeology at the University of Cordoba told AFP.

Vaquerizo explained the site was ransacked at some point between the fourth and seventh centuries before Arab forces conquered the southern region of Andalusia early in the eighth Century.

The ruins first came to light last November during construction of a car park at Cordoba's University of Veterinary Science but only now has it become clear that the site is a major find...