Cold Pools Uncovered at Sanctuary Bathhouse

ÇANAKKALE, TURKEY—Hürriyet Daily News reports that excavations at the 1,700-year-old Western Bath at the sanctuary of Apollo Smintheus, which is located near the coast of northwestern Turkey, have uncovered areas with cold water pools, or frigidaria, and a changing room, or apodyterium. “We have not opened the pools yet, but right next to them is the first section of the bathhouse, the entrance area,” said Davut Kaplan of Ondokuz Mayıs University. “This is where people entering the bathhouse first undressed, prepared themselves, applied oil, and chatted,” he explained. Kaplan and his team have reached the floor surface of the bathhouse and are working to determine its boundaries. “We have connected the cold rooms to the warm rooms and the warm rooms to the hot rooms,” he explained. “We have found the service corridors and identified the entrances to the furnaces, but we have not yet reached the main entrance of the bathhouse opening onto the sacred road,” he concluded. To read about a second-century a.d. mosaic unearthed in a bathhouse on Turkey's south coast, go to "Funny Business."