Ephesus

Ephesus

Lawrence Technological University

December 9, 2016

Great Theater

Allen, Will (photograph)

Single Built Works

2015

Turkey (nation)

Ephesus (deserted settlement)

Imperial (Roman)

amphitheaters (built works)

caveae

View of audience seating (caveae) at the Great Theater at Ephesus, Turkey. "The magnificent theatre is set into the side of a steep hill at the center of the ancient city. Its design, location and conception may have benefited from Hellenistic influences but its size and ornamentations are the products of Empirical Rome. The theatre was built at the end of the Hellenistic period, but it was significantly altered and enlarged by the Romans during the following five centuries ... A major Hellenistic construction phase in Ephesus at the end of the 3rd century BC most likely produced the initial theatre that featured a cavea with a single tier of seats, an orchestra with a drainage channel, and a simple one-story scaenae (stage house). Under the Romans, beginning about 40 AD, the theatre was expanded and renovated to become the massive structure that we see today ... The Roman cavea at Ephesus is larger than a semicircle, with three tiers of seats separated into wedges (cunei) by two diazomata and 58 staircases. The first tier of seats has twelve staircases, while the second and third tiers had twenty-three each. Made of marble, the cavea held 17,000 to 22,000 spectators and measured 140 by 95 meters,"--The Ancient Theatre Archive, Whitman College website.

marble (rock)

140 by 95 meters

jpeg

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