Roman Baths
The Roman Baths is located on the western slope of the city, i.e. the Lower City where public buildings cluster. The monument is located 40 m northwest of the Main City Gate, 26 m west of Nymphaion A, southwest of the Necropolis and just east of the Stadion. The baths covers an area of approximately 1140 square meters. The north-south oriented building has a rectangular layout, with a short facade of 21.80 m and a long facade of 60.87 m in length. The baths was oriented in accordance with the terrain, the structure was placed directly on rocky and solid ground. According to the current layout, there are five halls in a row. However, in the light of new researches, it was attested that the building has two basic construction phases. Despite the first three halls (Halls I-III) are of the same size, the other two halls (Halls IV-V) were started at 4.25 m east. In other words, Halls I, II and III (21.80 m) were placed longer than Hall IV and V (16.55 m). It was understood that this structural difference between the halls was due to the repairs made in the bathhouse. Especially, there are important differences between the construction techniques of the walls of the first three halls and of Halls IV and V and the corridor. However, the absence of wall joints and wall separation attested where Hall IV meets Hall III are other indications that these spaces were added later. Thus, in the first construction phase, the structure was a three-hall facility; in the second phase, the monument was transformed into a more complex facility with addition of Halls IV and V and the corridor. It was found that the western facade was concealed by a corridor of 43.40 m in length and 2.65 m in width. This corridor starts from Hall I and extends up to Hall IV. The monument is accessed from the north side where Hall I (apodyterium) is and by continuing through this corridor, Halls I, II, III and IV are reached respectively.
south façade of the Roman Baths
Roman Baths at Sillyon is one of the well-preserved examples reflecting the traditional baths architecture of the period because, as in many of contemporaneous examples, it incorporates the basic characteristics of traditional Roman baths typology and bathing culture. However, beside the asymmetrical and fashionable bathhouse architecture of the period encountered in Pamphylia, Lycia, Pisidia and Rough Cilicia, it can also be said that it resembles simpler structures with more local features. Thus, Roman Baths at Sillyon can be evaluated within the group of “sequential type (Reihentyp)” baths, one of the basic ancient baths types. The Roman Baths at Sillyon has two basic construction phases. The monument consisted of three halls in a row in the first phase, and it was transformed to a complex structure by adding two halls and the corridor in the second phase. This transformation did not change the basic layout of the monument and it continued to be used by developing the sequential order. In the first phase, this facility, which we think, was composed of frigidarium (apodyterium (?)), tepidarium and caldarium, later, new functions were added by adding Halls IV and V. In this new layout, the hall arrangement of the bathhouse from north to south was as follows; apodyterium (Hall I), frigidarium (Hall II), tepidarium (Hall III), caldarium I (Hall IV) and caldarium II (Hall V) at the southern end. The Roman Baths at Sillyon should be considered as an architectural activity for monumentality in the second and third centuries AD. The structure was in use until the Late Antiquity.
3D drawing of the Roman Baths