The baths date from the 3rd century AD and have the usual cold, medium, warm rooms and bathing areas. They are surrounded by lots of fragments, many of them of all kinds of grave stones, many rather recent and in several tongues, some older. The complex consisted of the Baths themselves (80 x 130m), and a large Palaestra (wrestling school) to its west (100 x 100m). During the Middle Ages, the area was partly used as an Islamic graveyard, which was excavated in 2000. Since the first archaeological excavations of the Roman Baths in 1931-1947, some thousand grave stones and other sculpted or inscribed stone fragments were moved to the spot, turning it into a large and significant Open Air Museum.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Sources: ‘Türkiye Tarihi Yerler Kılavuzu’ – M.Orhan Bayrak, Inkılâp Kitabevi, Istanbul, 1994.
& Website of ‘anadolumedeniyetlerimuzesi.gov.tr’ – Annual report 2000 .