They now have a major tourist attraction around the site. It is pretty well disguised as an old city building on the top, but in the center of the building is the original pool and all around it below ground level are artifacts and original pieces of the structures. They have nice carpeted walkways to get around (photo at left). They also have audio handsets which comprise a personal guide through the museum. The narration is digitally recorded in the handset and selections are called up by punching in the number displayed in the museum. You can select one of five different languages by entering the appropriate number at the begining of the tour.

There is still a flow of heated water from the original source running at several thousand gallons per day. Most of the ruins which have been excavated are on display. We tourists walked over the original Roman stones around the main pool. The original lead pipe is laying on top of the paving stones and has been half flattened from people walking on it. It was formed much like we make organ pipes to this day, by taking a flat sheet and rolling it around a piece of wood, then soldering the seam.

Around the square to the left from the museum was the Bath Abbey, another large church structure. Although original houses of worship had been on that site since Roman BC times, the current structure was only built as recently as 1499(!) The inside of the abbey was half covered with extensive scaffolding. They were in the middle of a complete cleaning and renovation of the interior in preparation for their 500th anniversary in 1999. The church has stained glass windows which are very large even by modern standards. It was because of these large windows that the abbey is also called the "Lantern of the West".

Just outside the abbey is a small stone building (slightly larger than a 2-car garage) which is the Bath SDA church. (Indicated by the arrow on the arial photo at left.)