ATHENS, Aug. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The opening ceremony of the 28th Olympic Games was held in Athens Friday evening. The following are some facts related with the ceremony:

    The Olympic Stadium where the opening ceremony was held was built in 1982 and completely renovated from 2000 to 2004, with a capacity of 72,000. The new roof of the stadium, designed by Spaniard architect Santiago Calatrava, weighs 18,700 tonnes and covers a total area of 25,000 square meters.

    The main performance area of the opening ceremony is filled 2162 cubic meters or 2,162,000 liters of water and this expanse of water covers an area of 9645 square meters. It takes six hours to fill the space but takes only three minutes to drain with ten drainage valves, which can empty 3000 liters of water per second. When drained from the arena, the water is stored in a circular "doughnut" reservoir that forms a ring around the pit 41 meters in diameter with a capacity of 2,300,000 liters of water.

    Thirty six and half meters above the stadium is a cable net or aerial flying system, which used 37km of steel wire rope. In the cable net, there are 24 independent trajectories along which scenery can travel; each radiating outwards from a single hub set above the center of the space. 72 computer-controlled steel wire winches mounted on 18 platforms move the various scenic elements around the space and the winches control 72 cables, which together can lift 22,500 kilograms of scenery. Enditem