[1] It was one of the largest in the Levant, occupying an area of 3500 m2,[1] and was probably similar in overall design to the Circus Maximus in Rome, comprising starting gates and a circuit of two straight tracks connected by a semicircular end.

The Berytus hippodrome is mentioned in the anonymous, late 4th century Expositio totius mundi et gentium ("A description of the world and its people") as one of the five best racing circuits in the Levant, the others being at Antioch, Laodicea, Caesarea and Tyrus.

[2] During the 6th and the 7th centuries of the Byzantine Empire, violent factional and political disturbances at circuses (such as the Nike riots in Constantinople) led to their gradual abandonment as places of costly, officially subsidised mass entertainment.

[1] In 2009, the site was officially listed in the general inventory of historic buildings, and the Culture Minister Tamam Salam ruled that it should be preserved in situ and turned into a tourist landmark.

[4] According to an article appearing in the French daily, L'Orient-Le Jour, Gaby Layoun, the Culture Minister at the time, approved in March 2012 plans for a luxury residential complex to be built over the ruins of Beirut's Roman Hippodrome, bypassing the recommendations of three of his predecessors: Tarek Mitri, Salim Wardé, and Tammam Salam.