STORY: :: Archeologists uncover a lavish private bath

complex in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii

:: Pompeii, Italy

:: Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Director, Pompeii Archaeological Park

''We have here one of the largest bath complexes in a private house in Pompeii. Since it was customary to go first for a bath, and then to have a banquet, this allowed everything to be done inside the house. There is space to accommodate about thirty people who could do the same things that were done in the public baths.''

The complex, consisting of a 'calidarium', a 'tepidarium', a 'frigidarium' (hot, warm, and cold room), and an 'apodyterium' (a dressing room) could accommodate about thirty people, being therefore among the largest and most articulated private baths known so far within the archeological site of Pompeii

Pompeii, 23 km (14 miles) southeast of Naples, was home to about 13,000 people when it was buried under ash, pumice pebbles, and dust in the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 AD, one of the deadliest in history.