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Select Page of the Album:The theater lies at the end of the main street through the Theater Quarter and, as our photos attest, it is in a badly ruined condition. The lower section of the cavea (auditorium), with 26 rows of seats, is divided by eight steep stairways into seven cunei. A diazoma separates the lower part of the cavea from the upper one, the epitheater, with 17 rows of seats. An ellipsoidal form ensured that all the spectators (about 5,500) had a good view. It dates from the 3rd century BC. In front of the round orchestra are the remains of the stage-building (skene). A gutter surrounding the orchestra helped drain away all the rain water into a large cistern with nine chambers.
In this theater, during the Delian Festival, held every four years, the choral competitions of the program used to take place, along with athletic events that were held at the stadium.
The theater was destroyed in two phases, during two attacks in 88 and 69 BC. In the meantime, the stage was partly reused, whereas the auditorium and the cistern provided the surviving inhabitants with building material to rebuild their houses. Archirectural fragments originating from the theater can be found scattered in the houses in the Theater Quarter and as far as on Mykonos!
