Bath has been welcoming visitors here for 2000 years.
The romans came to bath in 47AD and made use of the hot waters pumping freely out of the ground, that has made Bath so famous.
These waters bubble up to the surface of the ground at 24700 gallons every single day, at a constant temperatur of 47.5 degrees celcius or about 117 fahrenheit.
They contain 43 different minerals and are slightly radio active.

The roman city is 18ft below the level of todays wonderful georgian city.

The roman baths are a sight not to be missed, they are in fact the only roman remains for us to see in Bath today.

Wander around and be amazed, - give yourself at least an hour to do this.

See where they would have thrown their gifts to the gods and also the curses they would have made and left for the gods to act upon.

If for example someone had stolen your horse, you would write a curse and it might read like this:

LET HE WHO STOLE MY HORSE
BE HE MAN, WOMAN, FREEDMAN OR A SLAVE,
LET HIM BECOME IMPOTENT AND DIE.

Friendly lot the romans!

Bath has been built on three levels, first the roman level, on top of which we had the medieval city, then the georgian city on top.

Very little of the medieval city remains today.

One exception is the Abbey, which is the third abby to be built on this site.

The first one was where the coronation of Edgar took place in 973AD.

The second was so large that todays abbey would fit into the nave.

The locals refer to the present abby as 'the lantern of the west'.

Do go in and count the number of memorial plaques on the wall (it goes to show how well the healing properties of the water works.)

Cross the road to the Guild Hall, from here you'll see the wonderful stone carvings around the sides.

In Bath you will see lots of carvings in the local 'Bath-Stone' - an oolitic lime stone - which is very soft and great for carving.

The stone comes from mines hidden away in the rolling hills that surround the city.

John Wood took his inspiration from Rome, and he intended to build a 'Westcountry-Rome' down in the valley, - and so we have Bath . . .

The stone intended for the building would have been left for 6 months to mature and harden, whilst
the stone earmarked for carving would have been used at once, - while still soft.