Antalya, Kalkan, Gelemiş village

Patara has one of the most famous beaches in Turkey. The theatre of the ancient city located on the shore between Fethiye and Kaş has been protected by the layer of sand that has covered it for hundreds of years and many sections of the theatre have survived intact.

Evidence of life in Patara has been documented as far back as 4,000 years ago. The present form of Patara theatre is most probably an enlarged version built in the Roman era of the wooden theatre of the early period on the same site. The fact that the cavea had already been carved for the earlier theatre made construction an easier task. During the era before the transition to stone theatres, it can be assumed that the wooden theatres needed to be totally replaced every 30 years, which must have been a costly business.

The cavea and the stage edifice were separate in this two-level theatre with a single central walkway, showing that the early era characteristics were preserved during the Roman era. While the central part of the cavea leans on the hillside, a support wall to encircle the benches on the exterior was also deemed necessary. The row of benches with backboards along the edge of the central walkway was placed here to ensure that the sound echoed up beyond the break in the continuum constituted by the central walkway, as was the case in other theatres. The walkway behind this row is five feet wide. Two of the vaulted passages leading the audience to the central walkway have survived until today. The steps of the radial walkways are carved into the benches in situ. During the era in which gladiators fought wild animals as a form of entertainment that attracted revenue the orchestra pit was turned into an arena, necessitating the elevation of the side of the orchestra with a wall for the security of the audience. There are five stairways cutting through 19 rows of benches in the section below the central walkway, and nine radial stairways cutting through 14 rows of benches in the second level above it. Some parts of the stage edifice buried under sand have survived intact.