Archaeological site Epidaurus

Unesco's Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization has recognized Greece's Epidaurus Archaeological Site as a World Cultural Heritage in 1988.

Archaeological site Epidaurus is located in a narrow valley of Greece, with many archaeological floors. There are many architectural works located in this area, but most are still public works such as hospitals, worship power. These buildings were additionally built for a long time under Greece and Rome. Some special buildings were built to serve the elite and nobles. One of those works is the theater Epidaurus - the theater is considered an architectural masterpiece of ancient Greece.

Like other Greek theaters, the open-air theater Epidaurus was built at the foot of the hill. The theater stand is semicircular with a diameter of 119 meters and has a capacity of 14,000 spectators.

In 1881, accidentally the Epidaurus theater was discovered under a layer of land on the Pelo-ponnese peninsula. Soon after, the area was unearthed and the panorama of the theater was revealed. As recorded, the theater Epidaurus was built in the 4th century BC with 55 rows of chairs arranged in a semicircle. This great masterpiece work is the result of Polyklcitos architect.

What makes the current architects respect for Polyklcitos is that even if the theater Epidaurus can accommodate 14,000 spectators, the people in the last row can still hear the sound from the stage without the amplifier system. bar. Singing no microphone of an actor on the stage can be heard by listeners in the rear seats 60m away. This shows the ingenious and outstanding calculation of micro architects who lived many centuries ago.

At the time when the new theater was completed, the Greeks still could not understand because an open-air theater could have such excellent sound quality. They did not know that it was created by selected stones as a construction material for the theater, or because of construction techniques. Even in the next hundred years, the sound quality of theaters is still a controversial topic among many architects and experts.

Not until recent years, when the technology era with technology has surpassed, two engineers from Atlanta's Georgia Institute of Technology, Nico Declercq and Cindy Dekeyser, have come up with the answer to explain this miracle. . According to the two architects, the key here is the arrangement of rows of seats in steps. According to their calculations, this structure is the perfect shape for sound filtering, noise suppression of low-frequency sounds (the main component of background noise in theaters) while amplifying the high-frequency voice of cast. However, engineer Declercq is not sure whether this feature was intentionally or unintentionally created during the design process. But anyway, he still thinks that the ancient Greeks and Romans appreciated the ability of the theater Epidaurus to transmit sound and applied them to other places.

Premises of open-air theater design Epidaurus

One more interesting thing is that there is no solution at the Epidaurus theater which is the stage area . Usually a symphony or dance stage is designed with a round shape with a diameter of about 19.5 meters. But at the Epidaurus theater, the 19.5-meter-perfect stage has an altar. Historians and archaeologists believe that the possibility of this altar is to worship the God of Wine of Greece.

There are a number of other archaeological sites in Epidaurus, but when it comes to this heritage, only the Epidaurus theater is mentioned, the reason being that it is a fully disclosed work and a masterpiece of Ancient Greek architecture.

Currently, the Greek government still organizes a few special music programs at the theater but not often. This is also one of the famous tourist attractions in Greece