Women's Hot Room Wash Basin

Women

View looking at a wash basin (labrum) that was at the eastern end of the women's hot room in the Stabian Baths.  Note the pipe in the center and the painted plaster near the base of the basin.

At the Stabian Baths at Pompeii, the women had their own section with a separate entrance, changing room, hot room, and warm room.  The rooms were smaller, but they are much better preserved than those in the men's section of the baths.


The Stabian Baths were the oldest and largest baths in Pompeii and were constructed in the second century B.C.  They included a (un)dressing room (apodyterium), a medium temperature room (tepidarium), a hot room (caldarium), and a cold room (frigidarium).  One usually proceeded through the bath in that order.  Besides these usual rooms, they included a men's and a women's sections (thus baths), a large open exercise area (palestra), and a swimming pool.
 

The earthquake of A.D. 62 severely damaged these baths and some areas were not in use at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius.