This is looking at the statues lining the top of the baths. They are not ancient Roman they are from the 18th century, when the baths were first excavated. They just thought they would look nice and Roman like, and they do!
This is looking down from the street into the main bath. In Roman times, this would have been at street level, however in the intervening centuries, the level of the street rose quite a bit, to level it is today. Neither the pillars holding up the walkway over the baths or the walkways themselves are ancient Roman either, they are 18th century. Those sticky out bits that the pillars sit on are the original bases for the pillars that held up the vault over the baths. The weather pretty much sucks for 9 months of the year in England and the Romans didn't want to deal with it (being how Italy is so warm) so the whole bathing complex was covered by a huge vaulted ceiling.
Nicole looking contemplatively at the baths. Those things to the left of her are the remains of pillars, they are in an alcove where the bathers would recline and converse. They took pretty good care of you there you could get your armpit hairs hand plucked by a slave if you wanted.
A view of the bath with the Abbey in the background.
The water is green because of the minerals in the hot springs, like
Glenwood Springs' swimming pool. You would not want to swim in this water
today, even though the plumbing still works perfectly. To make the bottom
of the pool smooth, white, and watertight, they lined it with lead sheets.
Oops. On the upside it is still watertight 1,000 years later.
 |
 |
 |
