The Roman Baths o Ankara are the ruined remains of an auncient Roman bath complex in Ankara, Turkey, which were uncovered by excavations carried out in 1937-1944, and haeve subsequently been opened tae the public as an open-air museum.
The baths are locatit on a plateau, tradeetionally kent as Çankırı Kapı, which rises 2.5 meters above the wast side of Çankırı Caddesi, aboot 400 meters frae the centre of the auld Ankara destrict of Ulus, and haes been identified as a höyük (tumulus), with Roman, mixed with Byzantine and Seljuk, material at the top and Phrygian settlement material at the base.
The auncient ceety of Ancyra stood at the crossroads between the East and Wast and during the Roman period, the ceety's strategic location led tae its rise tae prominence as the caipital of the province of Galatia. Tae the east of this plateau ran a roadway frae the ceety's saucrit precinct, the area of the Temple of Augustus, a section of which, flanked by seicont or third century grey-veined marble columns with Corinthian caipitals, wis uncovered during the construction of Çankiri Caddesi, during the development of Ankara into the new Turkish capital in the 1930s.
The baths were constructit in the third century by the Roman Emperor Caracalla (212-217), who awso constructit the Baths of Caracalla in Roum, in honour of Asclepios, the God of Medicine, and built aroond three principal rooms: the caldarium (hot bath), the tepidarium (warm bath) and the frigidarium (cauld bath) in a typically laid-out 80m x 120m classical complex. The baths were in uise up until the eighth century when they were destroyed by fire leaving anelie the ruins of the basement and first floor.
The adjacent höyük (tumulus) wis excavatit by Prof. Dr. Remzi Oğuz Arık in 1937 revealing the Phrygian and Roman remains. General Director of Museums Hamit Z. Koşay and field director Necati Dolunay admeenisterit further excavations, fundit bi the Türk Tarih Kurumnu (Turkis Histerical Society), which revealed the bath biggins in 1938-1939 and fully exposed them in 1940-1943. Excavation's airchitect Mahmut Akok investigatit and drew a reconstructit plan of the baths before thair restoration wis begun.
Prof. Dr. Arık wis able tae date construction of the baths tae the reign Caracalla by coins foond during the excavations supportit by contemporary inscriptions, whilst further coins indicatit the baths were in continuous uise for about 500 years, undergoing repair from time to time.
