Botrys (Batroun)

BOTRYS (Batroun), ancient Syria, modern Lebanon.

COORDINATES: 34º15’21.50’’N // 35º39’42.27’’E

TIPOLOGY: Roman theatre. Urban.

DATE:

TRANSFORMATIONS:

CAPACITY:

CAVEA: The only existing remains are part of the cavea, probably summa by the diameter of the section.

ORCHESTRA:

STAGE BUILDING:

LOCATION: The remains of the roman theatre are inside a garden of a private house, east of modern Botrys, 60 klm. north of Beirut.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Chase, Raymond G. “Ancient Hellenistic and Roman amphitheatres, stadiums and theatres. The way they look now”. Portsmouth, Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2002. // Sear, Frank; “Roman theatres: an architectural study”. Oxford University Press, 2006. // Ciancio Rossetto, Paola; Giuseppina Pisani Sartorio (eds); “Teatri Greci e Romani: alle origini del linguaggio rappresentato”. Rome: SEAT, 1995.

OUT OF PRINT: When I was a child I used to watch Beirut images on tv news, they were images of tanks in a dusty city... for me that was a far world, like a world that lived in another dimension, very far... that images of Lebanon war made me feel strange and restless, but in another way I felt safe for being so far... that was I believed, a very far world, so far that it was impossible for me to be there in my life... so I was safe... Walking by Beirut´s streets you can see today the traces of the war that I watched on tv when I was younger although unfortunately you can see traces of more wars there... so many wars there... I had the luck of travel to Lebanon, of work there doing the best I know to do... thanks to Wallid and Wasim and all the people of the Palestinian refugee camps for teaching me the right meaning of life.