The urban fact in pre-Islamic Central Asia : diachronic and synchronic approaches (6)

If we try to compare the layout of the Aï Khanoum palace with that of the Nisa central complex, we can see that, despite the major difference in overall layout, there are certain functional similarities: nisa's esplanade would correspond to the palace's great courtyard; the Square Hall, the ensemble formed by the hypostyle hall opening directly onto this courtyard and the audience hall extending from it; the Red Building, the two interior audience halls, and perhaps the Round Hall and the Tower-Building (if they are herôa), the two herôa located in front of the palace entrance. The mud-brick theater (an extreme but not unique case of adaptation to local constraints, since three other examples are known in the Greek world, two of them in Babylonia) could hold 5,000 or 6,000 spectators, a figure so high that it is of no use to us in estimating the city's population. The gymnasium, one of the largest in the Hellenistic world, combined in its last state a courtyard surrounded by rooms for lectures and another for exercises. A nearby basin, advertised as a swimming pool, was more likely a drinking trough for the mounts of visitors to both the gymnasium and the palace, where animals were not allowed to circulate.