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Photo: Franzfoto · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Roman theatre in Sabratha, Libya
The ancient theater of Sabratha is the Roman theater of the ancient city of Sabratha in Proconsular Africa, on the Mediterranean cast of northwestern Libya. The date and circumstances of its construction are undetermined, as are those of its abandonment. Archaeologists can only advance approximate hypotheses, and place its construction around the end of the first century or the beginning of the second. After centuries of abandonment, excavators rediscovered the city and its monument during the Italian occupation of Libya in the early 20th century. The excavation and restoration work carried out between 1927 and 1937 made the theater the most important monument on the Sabratha site, the largest theater in Roman Africa, and the most spectacular in the Roman world in two respects: the colonnade of its stage wall was almost completely reconstructed by a three-level anastylosis, and an exceptional series of bas-reliefs adorned the base of the stage. It could accommodate around 5,000 spectators and, in its restored state, still holds 1,500.
