Plenty of healthy exercise and such...today's Sepia Saturday theme.
The “Great Bath” at Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan might have been the first built swimming pool in the world and is one of the best-known structures among the ruins of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. It was dug during the 3rd millennium BC. The pool is 12 metres x 7 meters, it is lined with bricks and was covered with a tar-based sealant. A hole at one end of the Bath may have been used to drain the water into it.
Bath of Caracalla; Caracalla was built between 212 and 216 AD under the reign of Emperor Caracalla.
Pools for bathing and relaxing were common in Roman cities and throughout the empire. The bath complexes were not just a place for bathing and relaxing but also for socializing. Rooms were provided for reading and to relax.
Typical features in a roman bath were;
apodyterium - changing rooms.
palaestrae - exercise rooms.
notatio - open-air swimming pool.
Laconica and sudatorium - superheated dry and wet sweating-rooms.
caldarium - hot room, heated and with a hot-water pool and a separate basin on a stand (labrum)
tepidarium - warm room, indirectly heated and with a tepid pool.
frigidarium - cool room, unheated and with a cold-water basin, often monumental in size and domed, it was the heart of the baths complex.
rooms for massage and other health treatments.
Additional facilities could include cold-water plunge baths, private baths, toilets, libraries, lecture halls, fountains, and outdoor gardens.
My granddaughter Fabrizia enjoys her swimming pool heated by sun power. (Photo Ts/ 2011)
Lake Constance/ Bodensee/ Uttwil on the Swiss side of the lake, where we used to swim in summer. This picture is from the early 1970s, It might look differently now, probably modernised.
Photo/sText Ts
I don't know why but none of your photos except the first show in your post today, Titania. I don't know if the problem is on my end, your end, or just a blogger problem. I'll try to come back tomorrow and have a look at your photos.
ReplyDeleteNancy, it seems here it is ok. It might be a problem with blogger, it can happen. I hope it is ok for you tomorrow.
DeleteI can see four photographs. We've visited the well-preserved Roman baths in the English city of Bath, and they are amazingly complex, with lots of facilities like those you describe.
ReplyDeleteYes, Bath, hence the name, a roman legacy.
DeleteInteresting pictures of the ancient baths. Pool pix always look so inviting. But its the picture of Lake Constance-etc. that really got to me. So much like Lake Tahoe where I'll be in 4 short weeks. Yea!!! :)
ReplyDeleteI wish you a happy holiday on the lake.
DeleteThe early civilizations certainly knew water's recreation value. Building the water infrastructure for all those types of bathing pools required real engineering skill.
ReplyDeleteMike Brubaker, absolutely.
ReplyDeleteI always dreamed of visiting all the historic places you've shown. So much of it was studied in college. Sad to say I'll never see these places so thanks for showing them.
ReplyDelete