COORDINATES: 31º57’08.38’’N // 35º56’23.65’’E
TIPOLOGY: Roman odeon.Urban.
DATE: Half II A.D.
TRANSFORMATIONS:
CAPACITY: 1500 spectators.
CAVEA: Facing west. 38 m. diameter. Maenianum: Ima cavea 10 rows of seats in 4 cunei; Summa cavea with 7 rows in 7 cunei.
ORCHESTRA: 10,75 m. Paved in stone, surrounded by podium.
STAGE BUILDING: Proscaenium was 1,15 m. high. Pulpitum was 22x5,35 m. including proscaenium wall. Scaenae frons was rectilinear.
LOCATION: Close to the Roman theatre.
MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Segal, Arthur; “Theatres in Roman Palestine & provincia Arabia”. New York, E.J. Brill., 1995. // 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: At the Amman´s roman odeon I lived something that I never had lived anywhere, in my travels through the Middle East. An endless of young people in love going in and out of the odeon, like being in a secret place, a secret place where love leads the steps, chaste love. They lovers coming to the odeon, hand with hand, the sat in the steps, talkink quietly, probably making plans of future, and then go out... that was all, in a continual coming and going, dozens of couples... where were they? You can only see them in the odeon... chaste love. I remember now that verses of an ancient Arab poet, Yamil Butayna: “I ride my eye in the sky / maybe it coincide with hers"
