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View looking southeast at the interior of the theater at Aphrodisias, and beyond that, in the upper left of the image the "Tetrastoön." In the theater, note that the seating area is slightly larger than a perfect semicircle. This was characteristic of Greek, as opposed to Roman, theaters.
The brown semicircle is where the orchestra was located. Note the high wall ringing it. The orchestra was remodeled during the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161–180) and turned into a venue for animal and gladiatorial contests.
Left of the center of the image the remains of the stage area and behind it, the first of the three levels of the skene are visible—with the Doric columns.
Originally the theater could hold 10,000 people. The lower portion of the cavea is preserved. Note the staircases that the divide the cavea into sections (cunei).
The theater was originally built by Ioulos Zoilos, a slave that was freed by Octavian who became a benefactor of the city— in the first century BC. An inscription on the stage wall describes this.
Around 1960, the "modern" village of Geyre, which was built on the theater and acropolis, was moved to a different location and the excavation of some 120 ft. of debris was excavated away to reveal the theater.
