Palaestra: Did you mean...?

Libraries were a feature of larger cities across the ancient world with famous examples being those at Alexandria, Athens, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Nineveh. Rarely ever lending libraries, they were typically designed for visiting scholars...

Lying at the crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean, the island of Cyprus has long been a meeting point for many of the world's great civilizations. Situated where Europe, Asia and Africa meet, its location shaped its history of bringing...

Dion is located at the foot of Mount Olympus in the north of Greece, in what would have been ancient Macedon. It takes its name from the most important Macedonian sanctuary dedicated to Zeus ("Dios” meaning "of Zeus”). Legend claims this...

Located at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula, Croatia’s westernmost outcrop, Pula is a town of extraordinary beauty with a 3000-year history. This important Istrian port boasts a rich and varied cultural heritage and has some of the...

An infographic illustrating a typical Roman bathhouse design and elements. The Baths of the Roman Empire were a complex network of public facilities playing a major role in the daily lives of the citizens of the empire. Most Roman baths followed...

A cast of the 'muleteer', a victim of the eruption of Vesuvius which completely covered Pompeii in 79 CE. The poisonous and super-heated gas cloud which struck Pompeii following the initial ash fall-out asphyxiated and baked any remaining...

A roman portrait bust of an unknown man, 2nd century BCE. From the palaestra of Delos. The bust is a typical example of the sometimes unflattering realism of Roman portraiture.

The Gymnasium of Salamis in Cyprus, with its columned palaestra, was built over the ruins of an earlier Hellenistic gymnasium in the 2nd century CE during Trajan and Hadrian's reign after Salamis had been greatly damaged in 116 CE during...

The gymnasium of Salamis in Cyprus, with its colonnaded palaestra, was built over the ruins of an earlier Hellenistic gymnasium in the 2nd century CE during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian after Salamis had been greatly damaged during the...

Head of Lucius Verus (reign: 161 – 169 CE), from a colossal statue found in the north gallery of the palaestra of the South Baths in Perge, Turkey. (Antalya Museum)