Roman Baths and High Street

While in Bath, the main attraction are the Roman Baths. The site of these baths is particularly significant because it initially served as a shrine for the Celts and dedicated to the goddess Silius (or Minerva).

When the Romans invaded Britain in the first century AD, the Romans built the baths and continued to build on them over the following centuries. Though the areas above ground are mainly reconstructed, the baths and drainage system built over two thousand years ago still work today.

Louis in the terrace above the Great Bath. He is carrying his personal audio tour. This audio tour was actually really cool, in that we could move through the extensive site at our own pace, and choose which areas we wanted to hear more details about.

Bath visitors treated the baths as not only a cleansing ritual, but an area to do business and to socialize. The Romans also continued to use the baths as an area of worship. Ancient bath visitors would scratch curse messages onto metal pieces, and throw them into the bath as a plea to Minerva to punish the wrongdoers. The museum actually displayed several recovered tablets, with the Latin messages still intact and translated. The museum had a large number of such cool artifacts.

This model shows how the site of the Roman baths once looked in all its glory. From what I remember, that highest building in the center left was the structure of the Great Bath.

This above display shows remains of what was once above the entrance to the shrine. The face in the middle is a Celtish face; therefore this facade precedes the Roman occupation.

This display case shows the mock dressing areas for the bath guests. Risque, eh?

The Romans had to wear shoes to bathe in the hot bath, as the heating system underneath the bath would have burned the soles of their feet.

Louis here against the Great Bath. The water is green because of the algae's reaction with the air and sunlight. During the Roman times, this area would have been covered by a ceiling, and the water would have been clear.

There are also numerous bath areas, as the bathing ritual was a process. There would be a hot bath for which to cleanse, a sauna area to ease the visitor from the hot environment back to a normal temperature (or vice versa, if done after the hot bath), a cold bath where the visitor refreshed. Some of the more affluent guests would also go to rooms in which attendants would apply oil on them before or after bathing. The richer guests would flaunt their wealth by the amount of attendants accompanying him, aka his posse.

A couple other scenes from the town of Bath:

Louis was on a cathedral fix, and kept snapping away at the plentiful and beautiful cathedrals around the city. Here, he is standing in front of the cathedral next to the Roman Baths.

High Street - It sounded familiar, so we snapped it.

I later googled this - According to wikipedia, High Street is the UK equivalent to Main Street in the US. It is the most common name of a street in the UK. Over 5,000 of these guys.