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In the lower city six large buildings still stand in part but the town spreads on all sides of them up to their [very] walls and some of the buildings are filled up with modern construction. The remains are disappearing day by day, and many buildings which were well preserved 25 years ago have almost completely disappeared. The [ ] of columns mentioned by early writers are barely traceable. The Odeum has been completely torn down but for its façade which preserves one story. The theater alone is in a fine state of preservation, only the stage buildings having completely disintegrated.
A huge building variously described as Thermae, as a church, and as a basilica preserves now two of its three great apses and the high connecting walls and two columns. A temple on the hillside below the acropolis is marked only by fragments of its façade and a single column. A long wall in front of the present mosque was probably the
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[Architectural details]
Molding of diazoma
Moldings of arches
Seats
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north wall of a church. A section of the vaulting which covered the stream for a long distance is still in place near the thermae. One wall of a building is to be seen at the western end of the town. A bridge of three arches still spans the river at the extreme west of the town and vavrious fragments of larger buildings are to be found in all parts of the village.
The once famous tomb, Kubr is Sultan, has been absolutely demolished quite recently is here many other small structures, no doubt.
Theater
The theater is situated on the eastern end of the ancient city; it was cut into the rock of the cliff which rises in the small bank of the stream. It is still quite well preserved, sections of every row of seats being still visible with the exception of some 6 or 8 of the lowest rows which have been buried in earth and fell from the higher levels. The two outer ends which were built upon as vaulted construction have partly
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fallen away so that the exact dimensions of the semicircle and of the paradoi can be be determined only by inference. The plan shows how the Koilon was divided horizontally by 2 diazoma. The two lower divisions being intersected by 6 klimakes into seven cunei and the upper division by 5 staircases into 6 cunei. Each diazoma was provided with a small double flight of steps leading to the [divisions] above it. These were places between the ends of the upper klimakes and in front of the lower.
A passage was carried around the semicircle at the highest level; this was surrounded by a high wall. In the middle of this passage, at the head of the middle klimax was a recess flanked by niches. This has been called a box like the royal loge of modern theaters. It was probably a shrine of some sort and undoubtedly contained statues.
The masonry of the walls and vaulting is all
