Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Archaeologists found a huge old swimming pool in Turkey. It is about 2,000 years old.
The pool is at a place called Tralleis. It is very big: 37 meters long and 12 meters wide. About 300 people could swim in it at the same time.
Long ago, Romans built the pool. Water came from mountains far away through a long stone pipe called an aqueduct. The pipe was 56 kilometers long.
The pool was part of a big building where people exercised and bathed. Every day, thousands of people used this building.
- archaeologist
- a scientist who studies old objects and places from the past
- ancient
- very old, from a long time ago
- Roman
- belonging to ancient Rome and its empire
- aqueduct
- a large pipe or channel built to carry water over long distances
- mountain
- a very tall, high piece of land
- exercise
- physical activity done to stay healthy and fit
- bathe
- to wash oneself in water
- complex
- a group of buildings used together for one purpose
Level 2 — Elementary
Archaeologists have fully uncovered a massive 2,000-year-old Roman swimming pool at the ancient city of Tralleis, near the modern city of Aydin in western Turkey, revealing one of the largest bathing structures ever found at the site.
The rectangular pool measures 37 meters long and 12 meters wide, roughly the size of an Olympic pool. Researchers estimate it could hold around 300 bathers at the same time, showing how important public bathing and recreation were in the ancient city.
The pool formed part of a sprawling bath-gymnasium complex covering about 40,000 square meters. Spring water reached the site through an aqueduct stretching roughly 56 kilometers from mountains north of the city, an impressive feat of ancient engineering.
Excavators also found drainage channels that let workers empty, clean, and refill the pool whenever the water became dirty. Lead archaeologist Murat Cekilmez estimates that between 3,000 and 5,000 people may have passed through the complex every day.
- rectangular
- having the shape of a rectangle, with four straight sides and right angles
- recreation
- activity done for enjoyment when one is not working
- sprawling
- spreading out over a large area
- gymnasium
- a place used for exercise and physical training
- engineering
- the use of science and math to design and build structures
- drainage channel
- a passage built to carry water away from a place
- excavator
- a person who digs up and studies buried ancient remains
- estimate
- to make an approximate calculation or judgment
Level 3 — Intermediate
Archaeologists have completed the excavation of a monumental 2,000-year-old Roman swimming pool at Tralleis, an ancient city near modern Aydin in western Turkey, exposing what researchers describe as one of the most significant bathing structures uncovered at the site to date.
The rectangular basin measures 37 meters by 12 meters, roughly comparable to a modern Olympic-scale pool, and researchers estimate it could accommodate approximately 300 bathers simultaneously, underscoring the central role public bathing and communal recreation played in civic life across the Roman world.
The pool formed the centerpiece of a sprawling bath-gymnasium complex spanning roughly 40,000 square meters. Its water supply depended on remarkably sophisticated engineering: spring water traveled to the site via an aqueduct stretching some 56 kilometers from mountains to the north, a considerable feat of hydraulic planning for the era.
Excavators, led by Professor Murat Cekilmez of Aydin Adnan Menderes University, also identified drainage channels engineered to allow the pool to be rapidly emptied, cleaned, and refilled whenever the water grew soiled. Cekilmez estimates that between 3,000 and 5,000 people may have passed through the complex daily, and believes the pool likely remained open to the sky, offering respite from the region's hot Anatolian summers.
- monumental
- impressively large or significant
- basin
- a large hollow container or depression that holds water
- communal
- shared by a community; used or done by a group together
- civic life
- activities and institutions relating to a city and its citizens
- centerpiece
- the most important or central feature of something
- hydraulic
- relating to the movement and control of liquids, especially water
- soiled
- made dirty
- respite
- a short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant
Level 4 — Advanced
Archaeologists have completed excavation of a monumental Roman-era swimming pool at Tralleis, an ancient city near present-day Aydin in western Turkey, unveiling what researchers characterize as among the most consequential bathing structures yet documented at the site, a find that illuminates the scale of civic infrastructure sustaining public leisure in Roman Asia Minor.
The rectangular basin, measuring 37 by 12 meters and thus comparable in scale to a modern Olympic pool, is estimated to have accommodated roughly 300 bathers concurrently, a capacity that underscores the centrality of communal bathing to civic and social life throughout the Roman world, where such facilities functioned simultaneously as sites of hygiene, leisure, and public assembly.
The pool anchored a sprawling bath-gymnasium complex spanning approximately 40,000 square meters, its operation underwritten by a hydraulic system of considerable sophistication: spring water was conveyed via an aqueduct extending roughly 56 kilometers from mountains to the north, a logistical and engineering achievement reflecting the substantial resources Roman municipalities devoted to public amenities.
Excavations led by Professor Murat Cekilmez of Aydin Adnan Menderes University further identified drainage channels engineered to permit rapid emptying, cleaning, and refilling of the basin as water quality degraded. Cekilmez estimates the complex accommodated between 3,000 and 5,000 visitors daily and posits the pool remained unroofed, an open-air design suited to providing respite amid the punishing summer heat characteristic of the region.
- consequential
- having significant importance or effects
- infrastructure
- the underlying structures and facilities needed for a society to function
- concurrently
- happening or existing at the same time
- centrality
- the quality of being of central importance
- anchor
- to serve as the fixed, central point around which other things are organized
- underwrite
- to support or finance something, often at considerable expense
- municipality
- a city or town with its own local government
- posit
- to put forward as a fact or basis for argument
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