Every town in ancient Rome had an amphitheatre, which means, "double
theatre". They were grand and impressive, shaped in a half circle, open
to the sky, and might have held 100.000 people. The stage had no
curtain; it was just a stone platform.
Imagine yourself in ancient Alexandria, in the Roman theatre on a hot
afternoon. All you can smell is the Mediterranean mist; all you can see
are wild beasts, driven in through the tall doorway, and the fighters
coming in from all around the floor. Famous jockeys and gladiators are
walking in, and then the excitement begins.
The Roman theatre is located in the modern area of
Kom El-Dikaa, which is almost in the centre of the city of Alexandria,
Egypt bordered by Horrya street from the north, Nabi Daniel street from
the west, Abdel Moneim street from the south, and Saphia Zaghloul street
from the east.
Dating from the 2nd century A.D it has a large
auditorium, about 42m in diameter. The outer face of this building was
probably adorned with columns located in several storey. In later times
the theatre was rebuilt and its auditorium was diminished to 33.5 m in
diameter. It then counted 16 rows of marble seats
The last major rebuild was in the 6th century A.D,
when the stage was turned into a huge vestibule, joined with the
auditorium by means of a triple–arcade. Two marble pedestals and the
bases of the columns are preserved. The auditorium was lowered to 13
rows of seats, and a dome, which soon fell into ruins, covered it.
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