ANEMURIUM 2
ANEMURIUM
Ancient Cilician City -page 2
Odeon
The Odeon, is one of the strongest examples in Anatolia and should have also served as Bouleuterion. The building which is 31.00x21.00 m, has four facades and a two-storey arrangement, has a capacity to accommodate 925-1130 people. It consists of a cavea with 15 rows of seats, an orchestra where performances are held, scene, backstage (postscene) and a vaulted gallery downstairs. Unfortunately, the top canopy is completely destroyed. Entrances to the Odeon are provided by four doors on the upper and lower floors. The upper floor entrances are located on the west facade of the building and the audience can easily reach the cavea from here. The ground floor entrances are located at both ends facing east of the vaulted gallery. The floor of both the orchestra and the vaulted gallery is covered with geometric patterned floor mosaics made of blue and white tesserae. Although the mosaics in the vaulted gallery are better preserved, unfortunately, most of the mosaics in the orchestra have disappeared. It is thought that the Odeon was built in the 2nd century AD or the beginning of the 3rd century AD.
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Theater
Anemurium Theater has a semicircular form and is about 60 m in diameter. The theater is reached by two different stairs to the east. Its semicircular cavea (rows of seats) was built using the gradient of a slope and its direction faces east (towards the sea). Large-sized rectangular limestone blocks were used in the construction of the Analemna (the wall that borders the cavea from the outside), and there are some protected parts of it up to 10 m in height at some points. Apart from this, entrance and exit to the theater is provided with 4 parados at the north and south ends, southwest and northwest. Today, the traces of the seating rows have disappeared completely. Scene has only underpinnings. The theater must have been built in the 3rd century AD, at a time when the city was prosperous.
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Public Bath
The Public Bath is the most magnificent and monumental structure preserved up to the roof of the ancient city. This building was built in accordance with the Hall Type Bath facilities group. Having a two-storey arrangement, there are 4 rooms on the first storey and 12 rooms on the second storey. The second floor of the bathhouse is reached by a 30-step staircase in the north facade. The apodyterium (changing room) is reached from the main entrance on the north of the second floor. From here, the long main hall in east-west direction is reached. There are frigidarium (cold room), latrina (toilet) rooms in the north of the main hall, and tepidarium (warmness room) and caldarium (hottest room) rooms in the south. There are floor mosaics with decorative ornaments in the changing and cold rooms. The first construction phase of the Public Bath is thought to be the Roman Late Republic-Early Empire
Period. The floor mosaics that decorate the rooms of the bath must have been made at the end of the 4th century AD or the beginning of the 5th century AD. In addition, the findings revealed that the bath was used outside of its main function in the 7th century AD.
Anemurium Public Bath
Large Bath
This building, which is in a central position of the city, is the largest bathhouse in the city. The building which has 9 rooms, measures 32 x 37 m and is 9.50 m high. Unfortunately, nearly half of this monumental building was destroyed. The rooms in the north of the building showing the plan features of the Hall Type Bath facilities group are frigidarium (cold room) and the rooms in the south are caldarium (hottest room). The Large Bath, together with the Palaestra, forms a building complex. The connection between these two structures is provided by three rooms placed symmetrically to the east of the bath. The Great Bath probably must have been built in the 3rd century AD.
Anemurium NLarge Bath Complex
Palaestra
The Anemurium Palaestra forms a building complex together with the Large Bath. A palaestra was any site of an ancient Greek wrestling school. Events requiring little space, such as boxing and wrestling, took place there. Palaestrae functioned both independently and as a part of public gymnasia; a palaestra could exist without a gymnasium, but no gymnasium existed without a palaestra.
The building consists of a large central courtyard and narrow and long courtyards in the north and south of this courtyard. The floors of the courtyards are covered with mosaics. The locations to the north of Palaestra, on the other hand, provided important information about the city’s late construction period. It is thought that the rooms here served as workshops in various commercial and industrial areas such as lime quarries, pottery and glass art. The Palaestra, built in the 3rd century AD, was used for different functions for a long time after it lost its original function.
