Masada - Baths

South of Herod's Northern Palace in Masada is a bath-house on the Roman model. A courtyard surrounded on three sides by columns leads into a changing room (apodyterium) which was paved with black and white triangular tiles. Adjoining this were the tepidarium (warm room), also with a tiled floor, the frigidarium (cold bath) and the caldarium (hot bath). The caldarium, which has preserved its hypocaust (under-floor heating system), is particularly impressive. The small piers of the hypocaust, over 200 in number, originally supported a mosaic pavement. From the roof of the baths there is a good view of the whole fortress.