Memories of Turkey – Aspendos Ancient Theater

Aspendos is an ancient city close to Antalya that has one of the 5 best preserved ancient theaters in the world.

Ataturk ordered the preservation of the theater during a visit in the 1930’s. Its one of my favourite places in Antalya, while the actual city itself is pretty much destroyed the biggest attraction is the old Roman theater itself.

Over the years I have been lucky enough to see many shows in this amazing place, from opera, to musicals to Jazz and Rock, Jose Cura, Macy Gray and some amazing international orchestras and Opera companies. The amazing acoustics actually amplify the sound the further away you get. Forget Beats and Dr. Dre, the Romans really knew their acoustics and how to get the best sounds.

The theater was closed for a couple of years and was “renovated” causing a huge public outcry when they revealed they had used brand new pure white marble to repair the existing old faded marble so causing a horrible patchwork effect.

Luckily most of the shows I saw was before it was “repaired”, but even now it is still a stunning venue. Sadly Turkey have been cutting back on the arts and music scene and concerts are now being cancelled or moved to smaller venues with lesser known plays and operas. But if you get a chance to ever catch a show here on a summer evening under the moon please please do, Its magical.