Key facts

• The Theatre (Polykleitos the Younger, c. 340 BC): the greatest surviving theatre of antiquity and the model for every study of ancient theatrical performance — designed by the Argive sculptor-architect Polykleitos the Younger (son of the famous sculptor Polykleitos, author of the Doryphoros and the Diadoumenos), the theatre was built into the natural slope of a hillside in the Sanctuary precinct; the original theatre (c. 340 BC) had 34 rows of seats and seated approximately 6,200; it was enlarged in the 2nd century BC by the addition of 21 further rows (the upper cavea), raising the capacity to approximately 14,000; the orchestra (the circular playing area, 20.28 metres in diameter, the original dancing-floor from which “theatre” derives its name) is defined by a ring-channel of Poros limestone; the acoustics of the theatre are measurably superior to any other ancient Greek theatre and are the subject of ongoing acoustic research: a 2007 study by Georgia Tech researchers proposed that the rows of limestone seats function as acoustic filters, selectively reflecting high-frequency sound (speech, music) while absorbing low-frequency background noise (wind, crowd rustles); subsequent research disputes and refines this, but no complete acoustic model yet accounts for all the observed phenomena; the theatre is remarkably intact (the limestone seating is approximately 85% original Greek stonework; the stage building and skene have been partially reconstructed for modern use)
• Healing incubation and the Abaton: the defining practice of the Asklepion sanctuary — patients (called “suppliants”) who came to Epidaurus for healing underwent a ritual of purification (bathing, fasting, prayer) before sleeping in the abaton (the sacred dormitory, a long portico-building of two stories on the north side of the sanctuary) in hope of receiving a divine healing dream in which Asklepios appeared and prescribed or performed the cure; hundreds of stelae (stone slabs inscribed with accounts of cures, the iamata, “cures”) were set up at the sanctuary to record successful healings — they are the most detailed body of evidence for ancient medical practice and religious healing in the classical world; the cures described range from the miraculous (blind men restored to sight; paralysed men who walked) to the prosaic (a woman cured of headache) to the comic (a man cured of worms after dreaming a boy was sitting on his chest)
• Tholos of Polykleitos (c. 360–320 BC): the most complex and architecturally refined circular building in the ancient Greek world — the tholos (also called the thymele, the altar, though its exact function is disputed) was a concentric rotunda approximately 22 metres in diameter with 26 Corinthian columns on the exterior and 14 Corinthian columns on the interior (the earliest monumental use of the Corinthian column order in mainland Greece); beneath the tholos, three concentric circular corridors wind underground in a labyrinth-like pattern (the purpose is debated: a snake-pit for the sacred snakes of Asklepios? the actual burial place of Asklepios? a symbolic representation of the descent to the underworld? no consensus has been reached); the carved decorative elements of the tholos (the ceiling coffers, the Corinthian capitals, the door frames) were the most expensive and precisely carved elements of the entire sanctuary, suggesting the building was of exceptional ritual importance; the tholos is largely ruined, with scattered elements around the central area of the sanctuary
• The Epidaurus Festival (Φεστιβάλ Επιδαύρου): the annual festival of ancient Greek drama performed in the original theatre — established in 1954 by the Greek National Theatre under Dimitris Rondiris, the Epidaurus Festival runs from late June to late August, with performances on Friday and Saturday evenings; the National Theatre of Greece performs ancient tragedy (Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus) and comedy (Aristophanes) in modern Greek translation, with occasional original-language performances; international theatre companies (from Germany, UK, France, Italy) are invited in alternating years; attendance typically 13,000–14,000 per performance (the theatre fills completely), with audience members arriving at sunset and the performance concluding after midnight under the Peloponnese stars; this is one of the great open-air performance experiences in Europe
• Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus, inscribed 1988
• GPS: 37.5963° N, 23.0764° E