Standing in the vast ruins of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, hundreds of gulls circle above. Their haunting cries echo voices from 1,800 years ago. Today, the bare shell of what was one of Rome's ...

Kiraly Bath, the oldest thermal bath in Budapest, was built by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century. Communal baths like this one (pictured in 2008) were the public’s main means of washing for ...

Hubert Robert, "Ruins of a Roman Bath with Washerwomen" (after 1766), oil on canvas, 54 x 41 1/2 inches (courtesy the Philadelphia Museum of Art) Bathing in massive public baths was once a hallmark of ...