Must Visit in Bath, England: The Ancient Roman Baths

Perhaps the highlight of my visit in the UNESCO world heritage city of Bath: the ancient Roman Baths. The city is named after the hot spring that Bath is known for.

Trivia: Did you know that during the Roman times, the town of Bath was called Aquae Sulis (the water of Sulis)?

Not many people know about this, unless they are perhaps locals and have visited the Roman Baths Museum that the geothermal spring is still existing today. This hot spring and the bath pools are now part of the museum. They have been since preserved and the baths are not open to the public anymore.

A block further from the Roman Baths Museum on Bath Street is the Thermae Bath Spa with steam rooms and a luxurious pool on the rooftop for those looking for some hot spa indulgence.

I spent 2.5 hours here on a greyish morning which had a bad effect on my pictures. Helaas. You cannot trust the weather here in England (or in the Netherlands).

So in the museum you basically follow a story line and a route of the history of the Roman Baths which is based on modern interpretation assisted with visuals and interactive staging. One of the interesting objects I saw were the â€˜cursesâ€™. They were short messages engraved on lead and threwn into the sacred spring. These short messages or rather curses, are complaints made by locals frequenting the bath, and they are mostly about petty thefts. Locals back then believed that the goddess Minerva who lives under the eternal sacred spring will hear their appeals and bring justice to their pleas.

Another thing that brought perspective in this visit is the scale model of what the whole place looked like before. A gigantic complex of baths, a big temple, a large courtyard, galleries and more. The baths were just a portion of what the place was before. This could have easily been the most coolest thing on earth at that time in England?

You might know this already, bathing is a very important social function during the Roman times. If we do socialising these days in bars, restaurants, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, these bathing pools before have served exactly the same purpose. Itâ€™s just different times, different way of socialising, a different platform, but itâ€™s still the same thing.

Donâ€™t miss the Roman Baths when you are in Bath.

The entrance to the Roman Baths Museum is on the Abbey Square, see left building with the portico. You will not miss this as many people (tour groups) are gathered outside.

This is a lovely hall where the cashiers are located with a nicely worked dome ceiling .

This is the main pool called the ‘Great Bath’. You will notice that steam would come up from the waters which gives the place a rather mysterious feel bringing you back in time.

This is the ‘Sacred Pool’ of Sulis which is the source of the geothermal spring where the hot water and steam rises before being channelled to feed the other bathing areas (e.g. the Great Bath in the annexed room).

The thermal waters contain sodium, calcium, chloride and sulphate ions in high concentrations. The spring here is not suitable for bathing.

This is the scale model of the complex before.

They have people dressed as well in period costumes. This guy was a bit lonely on his own.

Gorgon’s head from the temple pediment, which is a figure in Greek mythology.

The map of the whole Roman Empire. The north of the Netherlands is not part of it.

The curses in lead or pewter found under the spring, thrown by locals before as a plea to the goddess to bring justice to a theft.

The head of Minerva, the goddess of the sacred spring of Sulis.

I was here in the morning so luckily there were not so many tourists yet.

Need to have a selfie souvenir shot right?

Ah, finally! He has some company =)

A statue of King Blalud, the Briton king who was said to have founded the City of Bath and ruled for 20 years (sometime in 500 BC or a bit later) but there were really no evidence. He was said to have leprosy and was cured by bathing in the warm mud near the spring.