Beautiful Survivor

"This theater should be restored and used for performances," the great man said when he saw it in the 1930s.

Kemal Atatürk valued Turkey's historic patrimony and gave many orders for restoration. In the case of Aspendos, the result was one of the best-preserved classical theaters on the Mediterranean.

The foundations of the settlement at Aspendos, between Antalya and Alanya, go back to Hittite times (800 BC), but the theater was built on orders of another great leader, Roman emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius, in the 2nd century AD.

Nice that we have this great work of art and architecture to admire and enjoy even today, thousands of years later.