Aspendos

Most Roman theatres survive as a bowl of seating with the stage building gone. At Aspendos the stage wall still stands to its full height, pierced with doorways and niches, so you sit in a room rather than a ruin, and the acoustics do what the guidebooks claim. It was built in the second century AD by a local architect named Zenon, and it lasted because the Seljuks later repaired it and used it as a caravanserai and palace, patching the walls instead of robbing them. Above and behind, the older city on the hill is mostly unvisited - basilica, agora and cisterns in scrub - and an aqueduct with two tall pressure towers crosses the fields to the north.

What you actually see

• The stage building - the full-height wall of doorways, niches and columns.
• The seating bowl - tiers rising steeply to a vaulted upper gallery.
• The aqueduct - arcades and pressure towers striding across the plain.
• The upper city - agora, basilica and cisterns on the hill, usually empty.

When to go

April to early June and late September avoid the worst heat, which is severe here - the seating is stone and there is no shade until evening. Mornings beat the coach schedule from the Belek and Side resorts. Summer performances occasionally close the theatre for setup, so check before making the trip.

Honest expectations

Once you have seen the theatre, the visit is essentially over unless you walk up to the overgrown city, which few do and which has no path worth the name. Souvenir stalls press against the entrance. Midday coach traffic can put several hundred people inside at once, which ruins the acoustics demonstration.

Nearby

The ruins of Perge and Side, and the Koprulu canyon road inland.