Every town in ancient Rome had an amphitheatre, which means, "double theatre". They were grand and impressive, shaped in a half circle, open to the sky, and might have held 100.000 people. The stage had no curtain; it was just a stone platform.

The Roman theatre is located in the modern area of Kom El-Dikaa, which is almost in the centre of the city of Alexandria, bordered by Horrya street from the north, Nabi Daniel street from the west, Abdel Moneim street from the south, and Saphia Zaghloul street from the east.

Dating from the 2nd century A.D it has a large auditorium, about 42m in diameter. The outer face of this building was probably adorned with columns located in several storeys. In later times the theatre was rebuilt and its auditorium was diminished to 33.5 m in diameter. It then counted 16 rows of marble seats.

The last major rebuild was in the 6th century A.D, when the stage was turned into a huge vestibule, joined with the auditorium by means of a triple–arcade. Two marble pedestals and the bases of the columns are preserved. The auditorium was lowered to 13 rows of seats, and a dome, which soon fell into ruins, covered it.