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Theater at the Sanctuary of Asklepios, Epidauros

a Pleiades location resource

Creators: R. Connor McLauchlan, Rachaelle L Browning, Tom Elliott
Contributors: Adam Rabinowitz, Joel Kent
Copyright © The Contributors. Sharing and remixing permitted under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (cc-by).
Last modified Feb 17, 2019 04:55 PM History
Greek theater in the Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidauros, renowned for its acoustics

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theatre, theater

{ "type": "Point", "coordinates": [ 23.079196, 37.595976 ] }

Unknown

Certain

European Space Imaging 2012

representative

  • Classical (Greco-Roman; 550 BC-330 BC) (confident)
  • Hellenistic Greek, Roman Republic (330 BC-30 BC) (confident)
  • Roman, early Empire (30 BC-AD 300) (confident)

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Citation:

Pleiades

The theater at Epidauros was originally constructed in the late 4th or 3rd century BC in a major healing sanctuary of Asklepios near the settlement of Epidauros. Its architects used the surrounding landscape and countryside as an integral part of the theater's construction. The theater’s shape and its sloped stands created an ancient acoustic masterpiece in which sound travels equally to every seat in the theater. The acoustic strategies pioneered in this theater became the model for future theater construction in the ancient world.

The theater was expanded by the Romans after the first century BC to seat nearly 15,000 individuals. The theater continued to be used in the following centuries until the decline of the Roman Empire and the invasion of the Goths in 395 AD. It was then abandoned until its rediscovery in 1881. After a series of excavations, the theater was re-opened to the arts in the 20th century, and now serves as a tourist attraction and a venue for the production of Greek plays.

Coordinates sourced by eye in Google Earth during September 2012 at an eye altitude of 840m. Dates follow J. Camp in BAtlas.