ancient theatre - 2, Plovdiv

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Not much is known about the Roman Odeon more than it was built and extended in the 2nd to the 5th centuries and had a capacity of only 350-400 spectators.
There are now some excavations going on.

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Under the main street in Plovdiv, is located the magnificent, very impressive Roman stadium. Its rostrums were built over Sahat tepe and Taxim tepe (2 of the earby hills). The stadium has the form of horseshoe and there has been 30 000 seats. The flashiest competitions were the Alexandrian games, which were just like the Greek Olympic games. The main sport branches were the disk throw and spear throw, run, jumps, fight. The games were organized at every 4 years and continued a few days. Now it's been reconstructed and there is a little museum next to the open part. There is also an elevtor and a poster that gives you an idea how it looked the whole stadiu. There is a project one day to be open all the stadium as an underground museum :))

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Plovdiv's Ancient Theatre is one of the city's best-known historic sites. This is a piece of classical Roman architecture, built in the 2nd century AD during the reign of Emperor Trajan. This is one of the finest examples extant of this type of theatre and was constructed in tiered rows using the natural slopes of the Taxim and Jambat hills as its foundations.

It was rediscovered accidentally in the early 1970's following a landslide during reconstruction work on the city's Mediaval walls and has since been carefully excavated and restored to its Imperial glory. Originally it would have been used to host theatrical events as well as public meetings and the separate sections of stalls were allocated according to the town's districts. The modern incarnation is once again used for theatrical and other cultural shows and has a very busy summer season often packing out its 7,000 person capacity. Seating is no longer allocated according to district but rather on a first-come, first-served basis with tickets available from outlets around the city.

Check with the Tourist Information Office on the main square for details of forthcoming events.

For some more pics use the link below:

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Visit the ancient theatre up in the Old Town.

Wandering the streets, pathways and by-ways of the Old Town can easily take up a whole day – even if you don't stop in to one or more of the many house-museums there.

Go up the hill and wander to your heart's content. Up hill and down, up stairs and down - plenty to see and do.

The streets are all rough cobblestones. Wear good shoes!

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This newly discovered Theater located less than 1/2 mile from the Ampitheater at Philippopolis. More & more of the anicent city is starting to appear all over of the center of Plovdiv.