Roman Theatre at Palmyra

Roman Theatre at Palmyra
المسرح الروماني بتدمر

Overview of the Roman Theatre at Palmyra
Shown within Syria
Location Palmyra, Syria
Coordinates 34°33′03″N 38°16′08″E / 34.550768°N 38.268761°E / 34.550768; 38.268761
Type Roman theatre
Width 92 metres (302 ft)
History
Material ashlar stones
Periods Roman, Palmyrene
Site notes
Condition Largely intact
Ownership Public
Public access Inaccessible (in a war zone)
Type Cultural
Criteria i, ii, iv
Designated 1980 (4th session)
Part of Site of Palmyra
Reference no. 23
State Party  Syria
Region Arab States
Endangered 2013–present

The Roman Theatre at Palmyra (Arabic: المسرح الروماني بتدمر) is a Roman theatre in ancient Palmyra in the Syrian Desert. The unfinished theatre dates back to the second-century CE Severan period.[1] The theatre's remains have since been restored. It used to serve as a venue for the annual Palmyra festival, before the ancient town was taken by ISIL (May 2015).

Overview

The second-century CE theatre was built in the center of a semicircular colonnaded piazza which opens up to the South Gate of Palmyra.[2] The 82-by-104-metre (269 by 341 ft) piazza was located to the south-west of the main colonnaded street. The unfinished cavea is 92 metres (302 ft) in diameter and consists only of an ima cavea, the lowest section of the cavea, directly surrounding the orchestra.[3] The ima cavea is organized into eleven cunei of twelve rows each[3] and faces north-northeast towards the cardo maximus.[4] The theatre's aditus maximus, its main entrance, is 3.5 metres (11 ft) in width, and leads to a stone-paved orchestra with a diameter of 23.5 metres (77 ft). The orchestra is bounded by a circular wall with a diameter of 20.3 metres (67 ft).[3]

The proscenium wall is decorated with ten curved and nine rectangular niches placed alternately.[3] The stage measures 45.5 by 10.5 metres (149 by 34 ft) and is accessed by two staircases.[5] The scaenae frons had five doors:[6] the main entrance, or regia, built into a broad curved niche; two guest doors on either side of the regia, or hospitalis, built into shallow rectangular niches; and two extra doors, at either end of the stage.[5] Emperor Nero is known to have placed his statue in the niche of the regia of the theatre at Palmyra.[7] The columns at the stage are decorated in the Corinthian order.[5]

In the 1950s the theatre was cleared from the sand and subsequently underwent restoration works.[8]

Syrian Civil War

As of May 2015, the ISIS (Islamic State) had taken full control of Palmyra. In early July, 2015 it released a graphic video showing 25 teenage members lining up 25 adult male captives dressed in dark fatigues, kneeling in front of them on the Palmyra theater's stage area. The ISIS members then executed all 25 captives simultaneously by shooting them in the head.[9]

Following the recapture of Palmyra by the Syrian Army in March 2016, drone footage by a Russian television station showed that the amphitheatre is still largely intact.[10][11]

On May 5, 2016 the Saint Petersburg-based Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev, performed a 20-minute long concert of classical music, including works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Prokofiev, and Rodion Shchedrin,[12] at the theater.[13][14][15]

Gallery

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roman Theatre at Palmyra.

Notes

Bibliography

  • Ball, Warwick (2000). Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire. Routledge. ISBN 9780415113762. 
  • Sear, Frank (2006). Roman Theatres: An Architectural Study. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198144694. 
  • Finlayson, Cynthia (2012). "New Excavations and a Reexamination of the Great Roman Theater at Apamea, Syria, Seasons 1–3 (2008–2010)". American Journal of Archaeology 116 (2): 277–319. doi:10.3764/aja.116.2.0277. 
  • Kernodle, George Riley (1989). The Theatre in History. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 9781557280121. 
  • Carter, Terry; Dunston, Lara; Thomas, Amelia (2008). Syrian & Lebanon 3. Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781741046090. 
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, May 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.