The intact stage wall
One of a tiny handful of Roman stage buildings anywhere still standing to full height, columns and windows included.
Saffron Blaze — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0
Almost every Roman theatre you will ever see is a face without a mouth: tiers of seating staring at the gap where the stage wall used to be. Aspendos is the great exception. Its stage building still stands to full height, columns, windows and niches intact, much as the architect Zenon left it when he finished the job in the second half of the second century AD, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. You walk in through a dark vaulted passage beneath the seats and step out into a stone bowl closed on every side, and you understand in a single second how an actor's voice reached the back row without any help. The Romans cannot take all the credit for that. In the thirteenth century the Seljuks repaired the building and turned the stage house into a palace, and if you look closely their red-brick zigzag decoration is still there on the walls. Being lived in is what saved it, while its neighbours were quarried for building stone. It is still in use today: every summer the theatre hosts the Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival, and if your dates line up with an evening performance, that is the most memorable way to see it. The theatre itself needs no more than forty-five minutes, and it is the part that justifies the drive. The ruined city on the hill behind (basilica, agora, market hall, council chamber) is unshaded, barely signposted and better suited to committed ruin-hunters than to families. A better second stop is the Roman aqueduct about a kilometre north in Belkıs village: nineteen kilometres of water channel of which two huge pressure towers survive, one of the most complete inverted-siphon systems anywhere, and you can see them from the roadside for free in ten minutes. From Belek it is a short run: roughly twenty kilometres along the D400 coast road, then inland towards Serik, twenty to twenty-five minutes by hire car or taxi. There is no direct bus; most hotel guests come on a one-day Perge, Aspendos and Side tour. With children it is easy: the theatre floor is level and reachable with a pushchair, though climbing the tiers means tall steps with no handrail. In August the stone bakes from mid-morning, so arrive at opening or in the last hour before the gates close; in winter you will have the place nearly to yourself and the weather is mild.
One of a tiny handful of Roman stage buildings anywhere still standing to full height, columns and windows included.
Red-brick zigzag patterns on the walls date from the thirteenth century, when the theatre served as a Seljuk palace.
A kilometre north, two pressure towers from a 19 km aqueduct stand by the road, free to see in ten minutes.
Belkıs village, Serik, Antalya
Yes, and of the three it is the one you will remember. Perge is a sprawling city of columns and streets, Side is ruins by the sea among the shops, but Aspendos is the only one of the three where you step inside a complete Roman building. Give it 45 minutes for the theatre alone and skip the hill of ruins if time is short or the heat is fierce.
The theatre floor is level and a pushchair gets in through the side passage, and children love testing the echo in the stone bowl. Climbing to the upper seats means tall steps with no handrail, so hold hands, and the hill of ruins behind is no place for a pushchair or for midday heat. One hour is plenty with a family.
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