take a BATH, why don't cha.

Bath is a city in South West England most famous for the only naturally occurring hot springs in the United Kingdom.

During the 18th century, Bath was an extremely fashionable cultural hub, attracting the aristocracy from all over the country. It was a resort city for the wealthy to take advantage of it's healing baths and to "take on the cure."

But the history of Bath goes back much further than that! Just recently (In the last 100 years or so) they have begun archeological digs and have unearthed a huge a Roman monument.

Excavations have revealed that the human use of the hot mineral springs at Bath began at least 10,000 years ago! First frequented by Neolithic hunter-gatherer tribes, the springs were later used as sacred temples by Celtic peoples. The Celts, who arrived in England around 700 BC, erected what are believed to be the first shrine structures at the springs. They were dedicated to Sulis, a goddess of water, and the shrine was a religious center for much of southwestern England.

Next up was the arrival of the Romans in 43 AD. The Celtic shrine was taken over and the goddess Sulis was now identified with the Roman goddess Minerva as a healing deity.

The temple that you can go see today is that 2,000 year old sacred place where peeps would go to seek the assistance of the goddess Sulis-Minerva, as well as relax in a nice hot bath. Excavations in the bottom of the spring found a collection of sacred votive offerings thrown by worshippers into the waters. Many of these are messages scratched onto metal, known as "curse tablets." These curse tablets were written in Latin, and usually laid curses on other people, whom they felt had done them wrong.

Also found from the spring's bottom, over 12,000 coins - spanning the entire Roman period!!

This great healing shrine of Aquae Sulis was not to last. Following the departure of the Roman legions in the 5th century AD, the city, temples, and baths fell into a swift decline. Over time the baths were completely covered by the relentless silting of the spring and eventually the vaulted building collapsed into the Spring itself.

Then, at the end of the eighteenth century, this magnificent temple was "discovered" again!

When you go for a tour you can see the numerous Roman bathing pools that were fed with a constant flow of water delivered by lead pipes. These still function today, nearly two thousand years after it was first built!!

Scientific study of the waters show the presence of 43 different minerals including iron, magnesium, potassium, copper and radium. The main spring, bubbling out of the ground at a rate of a quarter of a million (one MIL-LI-ON) gallons per day and maintain a constant temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whew! That's hot.

www.cityofbath.co.uk