Surely, you’ve seen the advertisements — Cirque du Soleil is coming to Maryland early this month for a limited engagement at the Plateau at National Harbor. Yesterday, the Cirque finished raising the massive enclosure which will house the performance. The Grand Chapiteau, as it’s known, is 66 feet high and is 167 feet in diameter. Each mast of the structure is 80 feet tall, and 550 pegs hold the Chapiteau to 4,500 square metres of asphalt. The tent — though it’s really not fair to call it simply a tent — can hold 2,600 people. DCist staff photographer Kevin Carroll was on the scene to document the big top’s ascension.