Datça, Muğla.
Cnidus was founded on the tip of the Tekir Peninsula where the Aegean and the Mediterranean Seas meet. It was one of the lively trading centres producing olives and wine in antiquity. Its location made it a compulsory port of call for ships coming from the Eastern Mediterranean in particular. Of the two statues of Aphrodite made by Praxiteles, the people of Kos laid claim to the clothed one and the people of Cnidos to the naked one. The Aphrodite of Cnidus is acknowledged as being one of the major works of Greek sculpture. The studies of Eudoksos in the field of astronomy and medicine gave the town an important place in the history of science. Cnidian architect Sosrates designed the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt.
The Greek town of Cnidus, in common with Miletos and Priene, is based on a grid system. Among the hundreds of works excavated and taken to England in the excavations led by Charles Newton in 1857 were the statue acknowledged to be that of the Goddess Demeter and the Lion statue on top of the Lion Tomb. These works are exhibited in the British Museum.
Cnidus has two theatres, one of which is to the side of the harbour and the other up on a steep slope on the uppermost terrace of the city.
Very little has remained intact of the upper theatre apart from its wall. It has not yet been excavated. The white marble rows of seats of this theatre have attracted the attention of plunderers; it is claimed that most of the seating rows were transported by ships by the Governor of Egypt Mehmet Ali Paşa and the remainder by the Ottoman Sultan in the 19th century.
The three-tiered theatre on the shore is set into the slope at a gradient of 30 degrees. The rows of seats are evidently made of white marble, if a little yellowed due to their having been covered in earth. The seating rows consist of rough-cut stone blocks covered with marble set on a base faced with marble. The theatre entrances, apart from the entrances opening onto the orchestra, are achieved with four vaulted passages both on the right and on the left. The upper vaulted entrances opening onto the circular walkway have not survived due to earthquake damage. The two lower arched entrances are still standing. The vaulted entrances run from the outside towards the orchestra, passing under the rows of benches to the cavea, but do not open directly onto the diazoma. They curve at a sharp angle in the direction of the stage building and open out onto the horizontal walkway. This arrangement stems from concerns about the range of sound transmission. The arched entrances divide down the middle into two the first section, which at first glance looks like the first level. The first echelon has 13 rows of seats while the second has 12. The small horizontal walkway after the first echelon is approximately three feet wide, and the small supporting wall behind it is two feet high. There are nine rows in the third and uppermost echelon. The broad second circular walkway measures six feet at ground level. The supporting wall behind it is three feet and four inches high. On the two levels below it there are eight stepped radial ways, and on the third echelon there are 15. A small section of the coloured decorative work set into the plaster of the facade of the front wall at the edge of the orchestra in the stage section has survived to date. This suggests that the wall at the edge of the orchestra was decorated with colourful designs. In the course of continuing excavations of the stage building part of the vaulted sections below it have been uncovered. The height of the stage building based on the radius of the orchestra in keeping with Roman engineering formulae must have been around 46 feet.
Based on measurements of the site of this theatre had a seating capacity of approximately 5,650 people.