Secrets of a 1,700-Year-Old Roman Bathhouse in Turkey Hint at Hidden Elite Legacy
Discovering The Opulent Roman Bathhouse Near Salkaya, Turkey
According to the Anadolu Agency, after the farmer planting cherry trees stumbled across a Roman mosaic that depicted plants and animals like lions, boars, and leopards, archaeologists suspected that there might be other ancient remains nearby — and they were right.
IHA PhotoThe stunning Roman mosaic found by a farmer in Turkey in 2023.
The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, and the Elazığ Museum Directorate scoured the area near Salkaya using underground imaging radar (georadar), and soon detected a structure roughly 220 feet south of the mosaic. After excavating, they discovered that they had located an ancient Roman bathhouse.
About 1,700 years old, the bathhouse is roughly 800 square feet and includes sophisticated features like heated floors, as well as cold, warm, and hot water pools, sweat rooms, and channels for both clean and waste water. It used a heating system known as hypocaust (hypocaustum), which was popular among ancient Romans.
“When we look at the technical features of the bathhouse structure found, it also has the distinction of being the first of its kind within the borders of Elazığ. It is also important that this architectural plan has been preserved and survived to the present day,” said Emre Çayır, the archaeologist in charge of the excavation area where the bathhouse was found.
Anadolu AgencyArchaeologists excavating the Roman bathhouse, the first such structure to be found in the region.
“The sections we call the cold, warm, and hot sections have survived to this day through a fully systematic and planned engineering process. In this respect, we can say that the bath is a truly special and important structure.”
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