There were no guards, surprisingly, and the door was a hallway that ended halfway into the arena and led upward into the audience, there were hand grips in the sand shaped much like steps so one could climb in or jump out, the reason why this was done instead of steps is because when one is climbing up they are in the same spot and becoming a bigger target, making the arena easy to defend and when a emergency occurred then one could have a quick descent by jumping down.