NEW 2009 Premium Large Calendar Linen Paper 12 Months 20 imagesPhotography by Minerva BloomThe Baths of Caracalla were Roman public baths built in the city of Rome between AD 212 during the reign of the Emperor Caracalla. The bath complex covered approximately 33 acres. The bath building could hold an estimated 1,600 bathers. It was a leisure center and the 2nd to have a public library within the complex. Like other libraries in Rome there were two separate and equal sized buildings: one for Greek and one for Latin language texts. The baths consisted of a central frigidarium (cold room) under three high vaults, a double pool tepidarium (medium) and a caldarium (hot room) as well as two palaestras (gyms for wrestling and boxing). There was also a swimming pool, roofless with bronze mirrors mounted overhead to direct sunlight into the pool area. The reservoirs on the south wall of the complex were fed with water from the Marcian Aqueduct....More >< Less