Kaunos (Dalyan)

KAUNOS (Dalyan), ancient Caria / Asia Minor, modern Turkey.

COORDINATES: 36º49’31.41’’N // 28º37’23.57’’E

TIPOLOGY: Greek theatre. Urban.

DATE: II B.C.

TRANSFORMATIONS: scene building I B.C., rebuilt in roman times in II A.D.

CAPACITY: 5.500 spectators.

CAVEA: Facing south-west. Built against hillside. 73 m. diameter, exceeds semicircle; Maenianum: Ima cavea with 18 rows of seats in 9 cunei; Summa cavea with 15 rows in 9 cunei. Top rows in ima and summa with continuous stone-back rest.

ORCHESTRA: 21 m. diameter.

STAGE BUILDING: Hellenistic proscaenium remains with 16 Doric columns.  

LOCATION: Near foot of acropolis hill. 2 klm. south-west from modern Dalyan, crossing the river.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Yilmaz, Yasar; “Anadolu Antik Tiyatrolari”. Istanbul, Yem Yanin, 2010. // Bean, George; “Turkey beyond the Maeander”. London, Ernst Benn, 1971.// 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: After tasting the silence of ancient Kaunos an old woman, dressed severly in black, crossed me to the other side, in her small boat, to Dalyan. She was about 80 years old, paddled slowly, slowly, slowly as you have to savor Kaunos. From the river I could hear the call to pray, and something in my chest was recorded in fire for ever... I was the protagonist of a film by Angelopoulos.