Roman Baths of Ankara

The Roman Baths lie about 400 metres from Ulus Square on Çankırı Avenue, raised above the road on a platform. They were built in the 3rd century AD by the Roman emperor Caracalla (r. 212–217), the son of Septimius Severus, and dedicated to Asclepius, the god of health. The platform is in fact a mound: Roman remains, with some Byzantine and Seljuk levels, sit on top of a Phrygian settlement.

The complex measures 80 by 130 metres and is built of stone and brick. Visitors enter from Çankırı Avenue into a wide area edged by the remains of a columned porch, the palaestra, where people once exercised and wrestled. Along the columned way on the right are many inscribed columns, both square and round.

Work between 1997 and 2001 turned the ruins, which cover about 65,000 square metres, into an open-air museum. Roughly 1,000 stone pieces are shown in three groups: tomb steles, inscribed tablets and architectural parts, with the steles in the south wing of the palaestra. The columned road, found in the early Republic when Çankırı Avenue was built, leads towards the Temple of Augustus, Ancyra's holy place.