The Essential Roman Baths

• Features photography newly commissioned for this publication
• Brand new guide book to one of Britain’s most popular historic attractions

The Roman Baths at Bath are the best-preserved ancient baths and temple complex in northern Europe. It is here, at the heart of the World Heritage Site of Bath, that the only thermal springs in the UK emerge from deep underground, bringing health and vitality to this beautiful city. In the 1st century AD, the Romans chose this site to build the most dramatic suite of public buildings of Roman Britain. At the Roman Baths visitors can see in-situ remains and ornate architectural fragments of the magnificent Temple of Sulis Minerva, goddess of the thermal spring, and the remarkably well-preserved bath-house frequented by residents and pilgrims nearly 2,000 years ago. Also on display are coins and curses thrown into the Sacred Spring as petitions to the presiding goddess, inscriptions recording local people and well-travelled pilgrims, and numerous other treasures unearthed through archaeological excavations over the past 300 years. The Essential Roman Baths is the brand new authorised guide to the site, illustrating why and how the complex was built and displaying many of its greatest treasures. It features newly commissioned photography of the entire complex and its ancient finds, an authoritative and accessible text, and informative diagrams and illustrations.

Stephen Bird is Head of Heritage Services at the Roman Baths, Bath, and an acknowledged authority on the site. Barry Cunliffe is Professor of European Archeaology at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford.