Theater of Patara

The theatre of Patara sits on the northern slope of Kurşunlutepe at the southern edge of this ancient Lycian port city on Turkey's southwest coast. Construction began in the second or first century BC and was completed under the Roman emperor Tiberius in the early first century AD. An earthquake damaged the building in 141 AD, after which Emperor Antoninus Pius financed a major renovation: the orchestra was converted into an arena for games, the stage building was redecorated, the seating bowl enlarged, and a retractable fabric awning was added to shade spectators. The cavea, wider than a true semicircle at roughly 80 meters across, held about 6,000 spectators across 34 rows split into upper and lower zones reached by nine staircases. A small temple, likely dedicated to a god or to the imperial cult, crowned the topmost row on the theatre's central axis, while the two-story stage building stretched some 41.5 meters long.