Theatre at Aspendos

Theatre at Aspendos

161-180

2057

Zeno

Single Built Works

Turkey (nation)

Belkis (inhabited place)

Imperial (Roman)

amphitheaters (built works)

caveae

scaenae

View of skene and cavea at the Theater at Aspendos (now Belkis), Turkey. "Although influenced by the Hellenistic practice of building a horseshoe-shaped cavea against a hillside, the barrel-vaulted substructures supporting the upper levels of the cavea are purely Roman. Both the upper and lower levels of the cavea are made of near-marble quality limestone and are separated by a single diazomata. The forty-one rows of seats in the cavea are subdivided by ten radiating staircases in the lower seating section and twenty-one staircases in the upper section. A barrel-vaulted tunnel provides architectural support for the upper cavea and runs behind the sole diazomata that separates the two seating levels. Surrounding the uppermost row of seating at the top of the cavea is a colonnaded gallery with fifty-nine vaulted arches ... The skene, which is as high as the cavea, is made of regular blocks of conglomerate, except for window and door frames in limestone. The scaenae frons has two levels, each with twenty free-standing columns arranged in squares of four around niches for statuary. The columns of the lower level are Ionic, while those of the upper level are Corinthian. Five doors open from the scaenae frons onto the stage. The central door, the porta reggia, is the largest; the two doors on either side of the porta reggia are the smaller porta hospitales. At the top of the second level the columns support a triangular pediment, at the center of which is a frieze of Dionysus with scrolls of flowers,"--Department of Theatre, Whitman College website.

conglomerate

limestone

Theatron: 325 w X 240 feet

jpeg

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