The Roman Baths

We visited the Roman Baths on our first night in Bath. As I'm sure you know, is a major tourist attraction.

The water itself that is the reason behind the hot springs fell as rain on the nearby Mendip Hills. It percolates down through limestone to a depth of between 2,700 meters and 4,300 metres where geothermal energy raises the water temperature to between 64C and 96C. Under pressure, the heated water rises to the surface along fissures and faults in the limestone.
(As a side note, in 1983 a new spa water bore-hole was sunk, providing a clean and safe supply of spa water for drinking in the pump room. - It tastes like sulphur, btw).
The first shrine at the site was built by the Celts, and was dedicated to the goddess Sulis, whome the Romans identified with Minerva. The name Sulis continued to be used after the Roman invasion, leading to the town's Roman name of Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis"). The temple was constructed in 60-70 AD and the bathing complex was gradually built up over the next 300 years.

During the Roman occupation of Britain, engineers drove oak piles to provide a stable foundation into the mud and surrounded the spring with an irregular stone chamber lined with lead. In the second sentury it was enclosed within a wooden barrel-vaulted building, andincluded the caldarium (hot bath), tepidarium (warm bath), and frigidarium (cold bath). After the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the first decade of the fifth century, these fell into disrepair and were eventually lost due to silting up and flooding.

This is the Gordon's Head from the Temple Pediment. The Bath Roman Temple stood on a podium more than two meters above the surrounding courtyard, approached by a flight of steps. On the approach there were four large columns. Gordon was a protective deity from early religious concepts - her power was so strong that one attempting to look upon her would be turned to stone.
The museum at Bath houses artefacts from the Roman period including objects which were thrown into the Sacred Spring, presumably as offerings to the goddess. These include more than 12,000 Roman currency coins and small, carved stones.

These were the stairs leading into one of the rooms. See how worn they are? They are basically a half-circle!

Here's a fun fact! The water that flows through the Roman Baths is now considered unsafe for bathing, partly due to its having passed through the still-functioning original lead pipes, and up until WW2, it was advertised on the basis of the radioactivity it contained.

However, the more significant danger is now considered to be infectious deseases. In 1979 a girl swimming in the restored bath swallowed some of the sourse water, and died five days later of meningitis. Tests shows that a species of amoeba was in the water and the pool was closed, and remains closed today. The newly-constructed Thermae Bath Spa allows modern-day bathers to experience the waters via a series of more recently-drilled boreholes.

This is part of the remains of the roof. Can you imagine how heavy it is? Yikes!

Also on display are the remains of the elaborate hypocaust heating system which served the sweat rooms. The word 'hypocaust' means 'heat from below'. The floor was raised above the ground by pillars, and spaces were left inside the walls so that hot air and smoke from the furnace would pass through these areas and out of flues in the rood, thereby heading but not polluting the inerior of the room.

It was an expensive and busy attraction, but definitely worth seeing. Next up us the Abbey!