The Baths of Antoninus or Baths of Carthage, located in

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, are the largest set of Roman

thermae In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large Roman Empire, imperial public bath, bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed i ...

built on the African continent and one of three largest built in the Roman Empire. They are the largest outside mainland Italy. The baths are also the only remaining Thermae of Carthage that dates back to the Roman Empire's era. The baths were built during the reign of Roman Emperor

Antoninus Pius Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius (; ; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held var ...

. After the Punic's were defeated during the

Third Punic War The Third Punic War (149–146 BC) was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between Carthage and Rome. The war was fought entirely within Carthaginian territory, in what is now northern Tunisia. When the Second Punic War ended in 20 ...

(149–146 BC), Roman traditions and customs took hold of Carthage. Carthage eventually became the third city for the allied Berber kings of the Romans. Under the control of Emperor Hadrian, the bathhouses were constructed in Carthage along the Mediterranean Sea. The bathhouses were given the name of the previous emperor,

. The baths were in use until

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

destroyed them after invading Tunisia in 439 AD. The remains of the cite are mostly in ruins, but few pieces have been preserved. The baths are at the South-East of the archaeological site, near the presidential Carthage Palace. The archaeological excavations started during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and concluded by the creation of an archaeological park for the monument. It is also one of the most important landmarks of Tunisia. The Baths of Antoninus are structurally unique compared to other Roman bathhouses. The clay soil that bordered the Mediterranean Sea created a need for a larger foundation. The typical structure of the bathhouses had service areas in the basement, but the soft clay would not accommodate such developments. The designers had to adapt and raise the structure of this particular bath, making the Baths of Antoninus taller than other Roman bathhouses. The baths are today part of the Archaeological site of Carthage on the list of World Heritage sites of UNESCO. On 17 February 2012, the Tunisian government proposed the Roman hydraulic complex Zaghouan-

, that the baths are part of, as a future World Heritage site.Dossier du complexe hydraulique romain de Zaghouan-Carthage (Unesco)
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{{coord, 36.8543, N, 10.3351, E, source:wikidata, display=title Ancient Roman baths Carthage Roman sites in Tunisia

Location

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