Roman Baths (Bath)

The one Roman bath complex where the water still steams. Hot spring water at about 46°C (115°F) rises here at more than a million liters a day, and it still flows through the Roman system into the Great Bath, a green pool open to the sky and lined with lead. Below street level the museum walks you through the temple of Sulis Minerva, the changing rooms, plunge pools and heated floors, and the curse tablets that bathers left asking the goddess to punish thieves, many of them people who had stolen clothes while their owners bathed. You cannot enter the Roman water; for a soak, the modern Thermae Bath Spa nearby draws on the same hot water through newer boreholes. Go early or late to avoid tour groups.