I Got DIS Close!

Money was often given as an offering to the goddess. There were coins found from various Roman eras Augustus, Nero etc. The most interesting were some 14 coins that were found that were not Roman. In fact they were English, well as English as England was at the time, which was not at all. They came from a local tribe that lived fairly close, but not within easy distance aka they lived in present day Dorset and we were in Somerset. It was rare in general to find coins from tribes outside of their own living areas. In this particular pool, there was some modern cash. 5 one dollar bills, some pound notes which there is no such thing as a 1 pound note so they were at least fivers, a debit card, lots and lots of change from various places.
Part of another bath. That was not redone.
The main bath.
I got this close to the water and they wouldn't let me touch it! Apparently, there is something about health and sanitation.

I mentioned I had a lot of pictures, and you are only seeing the good ones!

I like to think of this as the very early Roman/English version of a jacuzzi.

Yes, this is a picture of running water... I told you I went overboard a bit. :) But it is cool because it is running under where I am standing like it did back when. See, I can justify my running water.
There was a whole section of tombstones. This was was particularly interesting. The guy who died was in the cavalry. So his tombstone had him trampling some poor guy to death.

I really have no idea what this is, but it is cool. There are some Roman plaques. Oh, there was like a ridiculous amount of curses found when they excavated the bath. Also, lists of criminals or people who wronged others. Their names were written backwards and left. Very interesting.

CrAzY wOmAn HeAd!

More of the Roman Baths!

The alter that was used in the main temple.
These are the original temple stairs! They were excavated in 19881 and the museum is built around them.

Part of the floor to somewhere... I don't remember where. Sorry.

This is the mini bath. It is a 'pool' actually. It is the like real natural hot spring. It bubbles! It would be less cool if it was warmer outside and the steam wasn't present. I wish the bubbles would have shown up. But the bubbling, hot pool was the reason this particular bath was considered holy. They thought that it was a work of the gods and that the water was to be revered as a place between life and death. That souls could travel through this hot spring. Offerings were made to this pool of water. The water is believed now to be heated by a natural mineral deposit flow of some sort that is seeping up to the top through the fault line that runs through Bath.

In The Roman Bath Museum

This is part of the original stone carved floor of the Bath Temple. These Baths were not just a place for bathing and recreation which is what I thought. It was actually a center of holy ritual. They worshiped a kind of hybrid Goddess. She was the Roman Goddess Minerva, goddess of wisdom and war. Also, it was part Celtic/Local Goddess Sirius. She was for all intents and purposes the Minerva, but she took the name Sirius Minerva and was worshiped as such.

This was part of the entryway to one of the temples. I have some closer shots, but they are a bit shaky thanks to my freezing hands. In the center is a male head with snake like hair. He is said to be related somehow to Minerva who was often associated with Gorgons (Medusa, snake as hair). Also depicted in the bottom left is a round 'globe' with a woman's foot on it. So say congrats to the Romans for figuring out the world was round years and years and years before good ole Chris.

This is a wooden model of what they believe the baths/temples/recreational areas looked like. The big dome in the center is the main bath.

The Roman Baths of Bath

The Roman Baths are so spectacular and totally worth seeing. I have so many pictures that it is unreal. What we see is actually partially excavated, partially restored, and partially re-built. The water was actually on semi-recently put back in! In the 1920s they used to have tea one the balcony, where this picture was taken, overlooking a dry, cracked bed. The water is from a natural hot spring underground. It is naturally greenish in color, and no I wasn't allowed to touch it even though some Portuguese lady did.

The English Roman City

Welcome to Bath. It is quite possibly the most beautiful city in England. I have heard many say so and while I haven't seen many English cities, this one was breath taking. We arrived Thursday night and stayed in Amberly House (as mentioned before). We went in search of food around 8 PM. I wish I had taken my camera then. It was gorgeous. Snow falling and the lights around the Abbey (which you will see later). We finally found food at this Italian pizza place. I fully believe Americans have ruined pizza because that pizza was amazing. I cannot describe the cheese that was on that pizza. It was sent from Italian Cheese Gods. Then we went to a Sainsbury (like a Tesco). There we picked up some snack foods to watch with Sleepy Hollow. We also found our first American! It is funny how you NEVER see fellow Americans so when you do you all cling to each other and talk as if you were best friends. No lie, this guy heard us talking and he screamed "AMERICANS!!!" Mindy and I got giddy. Nice guy, who actually suggested we go to Glastonbury which was cool because we were already going there and we had gotten a lot of slack about it from people in Edinburgh. The next morning we got up, ate an English breakfast (which is amazing) and started our day in the snow with no rain jackets. FYI not having a water proof jacket in the pouring down snow is NOT a good idea. You will be miserable even after you find one, which we did about 2 hours later.