Hadrian Baths

   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.