Bath - Ancient Stone Circles and Ancient Roman Baths

Stonehenge * Salisbury Cathedral w/Magna Carta * Avebury * Roman Baths

I had heard that Stonehenge could be a let down - however, I really liked it!  It probably helped that there was a brand new visitors center, good crowd control, and it was a beautiful day.  It was amazing to see the huge rocks, especially those used as lintels. This is the only discovered stone circle with lintels.  There's so much mystery with rock circles.  They're all over northern France and England, but no one is certain how they were used.  Most are lined up so that the sun comes through in a precise spot for the Summer and Winter solstices - there is also an inner ring of stones and what could have been an alter stone.  The stones are huge and don't come from the stone in this area.  Matching stone is found in Wales and it would have been a several hundred mile journey over land and sea to get these stones here.  Anyway, we enjoyed wondering & starring at the hippies doing their strange raised arm prayers to the stones, and a lady with a goat headed staff.

After Stonehenge we swung by the Salisbury Cathedral to see one of 4 remaining original Magna Cartas.  Written in 1215 it is amazingly preserved.  The handwriting was in Latin and minuscule as the parchment (sheep skin) paper was very expensive.  The ink, made out of the waste a hornet leaves inside an acorn, was clear and dark which makes the document still readable (if I could read Latin).  So cool - this is the equivalent of our Declaration of Independence, just about 500+ years earlier.

On our way back to Bath we stopped at another stone circle, Avebury, which is 16 times bigger (diameter) than stonehenge.  Leading up to the Avebury stone circle is an avenue of paired boulders where one would walk when approaching the stone circle.  The circumference of the stone circle was about 1/2 mile.  We walked the entire circle (through many sheep fields & crossing a couple of roads).  Many of the rocks were missing (apparently destroyed in the 1600/1700 by locals who worried about this Pagan site), but the ones that remained were striking, big, and quite obviously planned in a circle with an inner ring.

We had some time in Bath tonight and went to visit the Roman Baths at the city center (hence the name - Bath).  There is a hot spring right in the middle of town that the Romans used to feed their public baths and temple site.  The water is hot as it bubbles out of the earth (46*c - and still bubbling) and the Roman's channeled the water into public pools, bathing areas, and sauna rooms.  The largest pool still remains in tact 2000 years later with a complete lead sheet covering that prevents the water from seeping into the ground.

Stonehenge

Salisbury Cathedral

Avebury

Roman Baths