Our last stop on the day we went to Stonehenge and Avebury was at Bath. This turned out to be the newest of the three major stops--it's a mere 1900 years old. The Romans found this hot spring and built a temple and bath complex around it. Water comes out of the ground here at about 46C or 114 F (not something you'd want to stick your hand in) The water in the pool stays at 33 C -- which is about 91 F. That's not tremendously hot by our standards, but for natural hot water, it's pretty hot. I'd guess it probably stayed hotter when the pool was covered. The roof fell in many years ago. The lack of a roof is also why the water is green. Algae builds up in the pool because it is exposed to sunlight. With the roof, the water would stay clearer.
The day turned rainy on us, but it was still a great chance to see a beautiful city and to see how good the Romans were as engineers. The bath complex is well designed and amazingly large, with an intricate system of pools, drains, gates, etc. Some of those are seen in the pictures below. The baths sit right next to the Bath Abbey. That's the gothic building in the background of the picture looking over the pool below.
The city of Bath is also beautiful. The city's architecture generally has a classical feel to it, with most of the city designed to look like it belongs with the Roman baths.
The abbey is the most notable exception.
Bath sits on the River Avon (which means "river")
and the river provides some gorgeous views as well.
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| Bath Abbey |
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| Hot water coming out of the natural spring |
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| One of the drain tunnels. You can see daylight shining into the end |
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