Clearly the most beautiful underground building is the House of the Hunt, which has a courtyard of 8 columns. A dining room, bedrooms and a bath open to this courtyard. While many of Bulla Regia's houses may appear as if they were only underground, they really also had large structures above the surface. These both added to the space of a house, but also increased the cooling effect of the underground storey. Note the hexagonal openings in the superstructure (second photo), which made the weight on the columns below far less, without reducing the strength of the roof. Also, these holes let more light into the underground rooms. The House of the Hunt seems to be an exception to this rule. The flat platform at surface level reveals no trace of any larger structures. All that can be found are latrines and a large bath.
