Turkey: A Scenic Climb to an Ancient Theatre

The Theatre of Kaunos (Caunos)

 

To get to the Theatre of Kaunos, we took a river boat from Dalyan to the site of the ancient city of Kaunos on a hill that was once surrounded by the sea on three sides.  Our climb to Kaunos rewarded us with amazing views and remarkable ruins, including those of the 5000 seat theatre.

 



 

 

The two-tiered theatre of Kaunos faces the ancient harbour to the southwest (now largely silted in) and follows Hellenistic traditions with respect to its plan. The cavea has an inclination of 27 degrees and is divided into 9 wedge-shaped kerkis by 8 stairways.  There are 17 rows of benches in each of the two levels of the theatre. 

 

The radius of the orchestra is 40 feet.  According to expert opinion, the temple of Dionysus, next to the theatre, was built in the fourth century BC.  It is thought that the theatre must have been built in the same era.

 

The circular horizontal walkway of the cavea, the diazoma, is connected to two passages covered by barrel vaults at the north and north-west.  These two passages are largely intact

 

 

In several places, we saw holes in the seating benches where wooden uprights were once placed to hold canvasses that were stretched to screen the audience from the sun.