The Antonine Baths of Carthage

The places

The cold hall

The frigidarium, 47 × 22 m, its vaults more than 29 m high (shown here as three groin vaults). Eight granite columns 1.45 m thick carry the vaults; four cold pools, 9.5 × 5.4 m, lie in the end bays.

The columns

Each granite shaft is 12.5 m long and weighs about 60 tonnes, under a marble Corinthian capital 1.8 m tall. One of them was raised again on the site in the 1980s.

The warm hall

Behind the cold hall lay the tepidarium, a warm room whose vaults were decorated with mosaic; beyond it the heated halls stretched toward the city.

An exercise court

Two square courts lined with porticoes flanked the cold hall, for exercise and games, with covered halls at their outer ends.

The pool by the sea

Through the great door bathers stepped out to the natatio, an open-air pool almost 50 m long, under a colonnade facing the Gulf of Tunis. Across the water rise Bou Kornine and the hills of Cap Bon.

How it was made

Modelled and lit in Blender: the light (sun, sky and every bounce) is path-traced once and stored with the model, so it stays true as you walk. The plan follows Lézine and Vérité as summarised by Y. Thébert (2003): the cold hall of 47 × 22 m, eight granite shafts 12.5 m long under marble Corinthian capitals 1.8 m tall, vaults above 29 m, four pools of 9.5 × 5.4 m and an open-air pool of 49.6 × 5.9 m by the sea. The form of the vaults and windows, the marble revetment, floors and painted porticoes, the statues, the colours of the granite and marbles, the warm rooms, the courts and the positions of the pools are estimates. Models and textures: Poly Haven (CC0).

Sources: Thébert, Thermes romains d’Afrique du Nord (2003) · Thermes d’Antonin (fr.wikipedia) · AMVPPC: les thermes d’Antonin · UNESCO: Carthage

The era

Roman Africa, 146 BCE–439 CE: Africa Proconsularis, the granary that fed the Roman Empire.

Other reconstructions

• Punic Carthage, Byrsa hill
• The harbours of Carthage
• El Djem amphitheatre