Hot rooms heated by a hypocaust typically had floors resting on a series of piles of thin bricks or tiles (pilae). The floor itself was of larger tiles or hollow bricks resting on the pilae. Heated air from a furnace was drawn under the floor and out through flues in the walls of the hot room. Rooms furthest away from the furnace would have been cooler than those adjacent to it.
© Malcolm Shifrin, 1991-2023