Lato (Gulas)

LATO (Gulas), ancient Cyrenaica, modern Creta, Grece.

COORDINATES: 35º10’42.77’’N // 25º39’20.31’’E

TIPOLOGY: Theatron. Archaic cult Greek theatre. Urban

DATE: End IV B.C.

TRANSFORMATIONS:

CAPACITY: 180 spectators.

CAVEA: Facing South. Rectilinear. Theatron is 8 m. long. One maeniana with 10 rows of seats in 3 cunei. The structure has two missions, being a theatron and steps for reaching the upper city.

ORCHESTRA:

STAGE BUILDING:

LOCATION: Ancient Lato is 10 klm south-west from modern Aghios Nikolaos.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Nielsen, Inge. “Cultic theatre and ritual drama”. Aarhus, Aarhus University Press, 2002. // Anti, Carlo. “Teatri greci arcaici”. Roma, L’Erma di Bretschneider, 1947. // 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: Lato has two rectilinear theatron. These one is in the agora, looking to prytaneion, the other one is in the south.

Harpasa (Esenköy)

HARPASA (Esenköy), ancient Caria / Asia Minor, modern Turkey.

COORDINATES: About 37º46’12.56’’N / 28º21’03.79’’E

TIPOLOGY: Greek theatre. Not urban.

DATE: End of II B.C.

TRANSFORMATIONS:

CAPACITY: 2.500 spectators.

CAVEA: Facing north-west.  58 m. diameter. Built against slope. It had about 30 rows of seats but only 8 are visible divided in 6 cunei. Upper rows of seat were rectilinear.

ORCHESTRA:

STAGE BUILDING:

LOCATION: It´s little below ancient Acropolis, in the hill close to modern Esenköy, 12 klm. south from modern Nazilli.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Yilmaz, Yasar; “Anadolu Antik Tiyatrolari”. Istanbul, Yem Yanin, 2010. // Sear, Frank; “Roman theatres: an architectural study”. Oxford University Press, 2006.

OUT OF PRINT: The day I visited Harpasa´s ancient theatre was a great exciting day for me. I proposed that day to visit three ancient theatres of which I never had been any picture and did not exactly where they were: Harpasa, Orthosa and Bargasa, so it was going to be a rainy day full of unknowns and adventure.  I started very early the day looking for Harpasa´s one, it was not difficult to find it, only an extended walk by the hill in Esenköy. After I drove to Donduran for find Orthosa´s Greek theater, that was quite difficult to find and I will tell when I do Orthosa´s review, I only will tell the wonderful experience drinking tea in Donduran’s cantina before being hours looking in the field for the little theatre remains; In the evening I drove to Haydere for finding Bargasa´s ancient theatre, I found the ancient city, spending hours, but I did not find the theatre although, like I could see in Yasar Yilmaz book, “Anadolu Antik Tiyatrolari”, I were walking on it, in the deep wood... anyway, another of the million reasons for returning to Turkey.