DESCRIPTION:

The Hellenistic public baths, or balaneion, occupy the south side of the agora. The baths were considered a collective and important social experience. They were situated near the city’s agora, and their architecture reflects the cultural influences that were dominant in the eastern Mediterranean during the years of the Ptolemaic rule.

The Amathus’ balaneion is characterized by a series of secondary rooms that frame a main circular area where baths took place. Bathers were seated around the circular room, where smaller basins existed for washing their feet, which are now visible in the southwest part of the room. Until the 2nd century BC, cold water was used for the bath. Later on, a rectangular construction was erected at the center of the circular room, probably used for creating dry steam. Furthermore, the bath area was limited, and bathtubs were added.

Three smaller rooms north of the circular room can be associated with a service room or storage area, changing rooms, and possibly a room where bathers would go to rub oil on their bodies. Their floors are decorated with black and white pebbles arranged in a geometrical pattern. The eastern room has a mosaic floor decorated with white rosettes surrounded by black and white squares.

To the north of these rooms, a long area is possibly associated with a gymnasium or a stoa.