8 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The ‘boiler room’ of the bath in the Ancient City of Metropolis was unearthed

The vault section, called the ‘boiler room’, which provides a heat source, has been unearthed in the historical bath of the ancient city of Metropolis in the Torbalı district of İzmir.

The ancient city of Metropolis, which was founded on a hill between Yeniköy and Özbey villages in the west of Torbalı Plain, is the first residential area of Torbalı, which is situated 45 kilometers east of Izmir. Metropolis means Mother Goddess city.

The excavations carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in the Ancient City of Metropolis are supported by Torbalı Municipality, Metropolis Lovers Association, Sabancı Foundation, and İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.

 The first settlement traces around Metropolis date back to the Stone Age (Neolithic) Tepeköy, Dedecik, Kuşçuburun. Although the Hellenic community on the acropolis was founded after the ninth century BC, the city’s greatest growth occurred in the third century BC.

Photo: DHA

In the ancient city, where many monumental structures were unearthed, this year’s excavations are carried out around the Hellenistic theater, one of the city’s most important structures. With the works carried out for the last 2 years, the boiler room in the historical bath of the ancient city was also unearthed.

Head of the Metropolis Ancient City Excavation, Manisa Celal Bayar University Department of Archeology lecturer Professor Dr. Serdar Aybek said, “The building where the bath is located has a large area of 6 thousand square meters. This is an extremely large area, it needs meticulous work.”

The vaulted gallery we are in is one of the most important halls of the building. The area used as the ‘service corridor’. Along with its terrace, it is one of the most original examples of stone and brick architecture in Anatolia.

Photo: DHA

Aybek also added that the bath was built in different phases and dates back to 1800 years ago. First, while it had a small area in the 1st century AD; It was expanded in the 2nd century AD, and its halls were enlarged. Additional buildings such as the vault section have been included in the plan to heat the newly enlarged halls.

Stating that the vault section unearthed can be seen as the ‘boiler room’ that provides the heat source of the bath in modern terms, Professor Aybek said, “The ‘Hypocaust’ method, which is the central heating system established by the Romans, used.”

“The baths are heated by means of perforated bricks placed on both the floor and the wall. The boilers, which are the first step of heating, are located here. The bath is heated by burning the region’s red pine trees in furnaces positioned below ground level, below the three pools in the main area of the bath,” he said.

Photo: DHA

Professor Aybek stated that it was a pleasant surprise that the vault section was still standing with its terrace: “We saw that the building was at terrace level and completely preserved. This part was completely unearthed through archaeological excavations.”

We uncovered the well-preserved structure by excavating about 9 meters of earth fill. This part reveals only a part of the bath.

This is one of the most important structures of the Metropolis here. It has facilities and management units such as sports and dining halls. This is the place that constitutes the most important attraction center of the city,” he said.

Related Articles

How Evolutionary Biology Is Reshaping Our Understanding of the New Testament: The Case of the Missing ‘Son of God

5 August 2025

5 August 2025

In the remote wilderness of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, a forgotten room revealed one of the most significant biblical manuscript discoveries...

Neolithic Age Adults and Children Buried Under Family Homes were not Relative

3 May 2021

3 May 2021

An international team of scientists found that Children and adults buried next to each other in one of the oldest...

A Mysterious Chapel Discovered in Istanbul Bagcılar

3 August 2023

3 August 2023

While Istanbul continues to surprise with the richness of its historical heritage, this time a chapel was discovered in Bağcılar....

Xujiayao hominid’s brain in China had the biggest known brain of the time

17 January 2022

17 January 2022

A study showed that the ancient relatives of modern humans in northern China may have had an “Einstein’s brain” at...

Red lipstick dating back 3,600 years was discovered in Iran -the oldest ever found-

14 February 2024

14 February 2024

Archaeologists have discovered a small chlorite vial containing a deep red cosmetic preparation believed to be an ancient type of...

‘Astonishingly Preserved’ Ancient Roman Well Found in Cambridgeshire was An Engineering Failure

22 August 2024

22 August 2024

In an excavation at the site of future highway improvements in Cambridgeshire, the team from MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)...

5500-year-old city gate unearthed in Israel -the earliest known in the Land of Israel-

15 August 2023

15 August 2023

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday that archaeologists have discovered the earliest known ancient gate in the land of...

British archaeologists unearth the 1200-year-old man-made island

13 February 2022

13 February 2022

A team holding excavations and archaeological surveys on the historic Al Sayah Island in Muharraq, Bahrain found that it’s ‘man-made’,...

3,000-year-old skeletons of nine children were discovered in Qazvin province, Iran

29 April 2023

29 April 2023

Archaeologists from the University of Tehran have discovered the remains of children dating back 3,000 years during excavations in an...

5700-year-old monumental Menga Dolmen reveals it as one of the greatest feats of Neolithic engineering

6 December 2023

6 December 2023

A new investigation tracing the source of the gigantic stones that make up the Menga dolmen in southern Spain reveals...

At Ostrowite, archaeologists have discovered a high-status burial dating back almost a thousand years

2 January 2022

2 January 2022

Archaeologists have discovered a burial chamber in Ostrowite, in Poland’s Pomeranian Voivodeship, containing several high-status grave goods from the 11th...

Ruins of the 700-year-old wharf, possibly used by royalty, found in Oslo

6 March 2023

6 March 2023

An excavation by NIKU archaeologists in Oslo’s seaside neighborhood of Bjørvika has uncovered the remains of a long section of...

At a dig site in western Turkey, a centuries-old Byzantine fortress will be revealed

24 December 2021

24 December 2021

Excavation of vast Byzantine-era fortifications considered to be about 900 years old has begun at a dig site in western...

1700-year-old Roman shoes and craft district found in France

3 June 2023

3 June 2023

An ancient Roman craft district was discovered by archaeologists working in the southwest of the town of Therouanne near a...

First in Anatolian Archaeology, a 2,600-year-old Sacred Room and Stone Symbolizing the Goddess Kubaba Discovered at Oluz Höyük

29 November 2024

29 November 2024

Archaeologists have discovered a sacred room and stone from the Phrygian period, dating back 2,600 years, during excavations at the...