|
The Roman Emperor Hadrian was on one of his journey through
Anatolia in Aphrodisias as well. To honor his visit, the city councils had
constructed these baths. The bath consists of two separate sections for men and
women. In front of the entrance on the north side, a marble pool with large
pillars in its corners. To the immediate right are parallel to each other: the
changing room (Apoditarium), the cold room (Frigidarium), the lukewarm room
(Tepidarium) and the hot room (Caldarium). The underground heating system
consists of branched pipes and calls itself Hypocaust. First, sandstone was used
for the principle of the building, which was then covered with marble. The
foyer(Palestra), the rectangular rock pillars, the supports in between, and the
hot area were extremely decorative. The marble parts were decorated with the
famous illustrations of the Aphrodisias sculptor school: Eros, person and
animal figures Incorporate in Acanthus leaves. The enormous mythological heads
that formed the heads of the consoles of the hot area are displayed on the walls
at the entrance to the museum. The French railroad engineer Paul
Gaudin made the first excavations in the Hadrian bath in 1904. One part of the
findings of these excavations was moved into the archaeology museum of Istanbul
and another part smuggled without permission into a foreign country. Through the
finding of a fisherman's head in the Tiberius Portico in 1989, Professor Kenan
Erim was able to prove that the heirs of Gaudin sold the torso of this sculpture
to the Pergamon museum in Berlin. An official application was filed for return
of this piece. |
