Seating Area of the Ancient Theater of Arles

My third ancient theater this trip to France is probably the least impressive one. The theater ruins weren’t that large compared to the ones I have seen in Lyon and Orange and both were part of their respective UNESCO World Heritage sites. Considering that the city of Arles was quite important back then, it was a surprise to see how modest the theater was. I find it impressive that the Romans seem to be very fond of these structures and they seem to be part of major Roman settlements including Arles. While the theater was lacking in size, it was still remarkably well preserved. I would expect that there has been some reconstruction done on the the seating which probably tend to get used in certain events.

The theater is understandably very old. It was probably completed in the year 12 BC. That makes it more than two thousand years old. It is also considered one of the first stone theaters built in the Roman empire. I assume that all the others have been made of wood which tends to not last very long. I don’t know how many wooden theaters have actually survived to this day but I don’t expect them to be as many as the stone ones. Apparently, the seating area of the theater can seat ten thousand people. That is probably more than a lot of theaters these days but probably not as large as other Roman theaters.

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