Historic Roman Baths are drained for cleaning
Visitors to the Bath & North East Somerset Council-run Roman Baths in Bath on the morning of Thursday 13th November were treated to the rare sight of the Great Bath empty of hot water. Once it had been drained, teams of Bath & North East Somerset Council staff spent six hours scrubbing ochre-coloured mineral-rich sediment from the bottom of the pool.
The Great Bath is the largest of the recreational swimming pools in the centre of this vast 2000-year old temple and religious bathing complex. A quarter of a million gallons (1,106,400 litres) of hot water flow through the site every day from the thermal spring at the heart of the site, the only natural hot spring in the United Kingdom. To drain the Great Bath, the hot water was diverted through the original Roman overflow, a method of cleaning that has not changed in 2000 years. Once the Roman-designed sluice-gate was closed, the Great Bath filled up again at the rate of 13 litres per second.
The Roman Baths is currently undergoing a five-year £5 million redevelopment to conserve the ancient monument, to re-interpret the stories behind it for nearly 1 million people who visit it each year from all over the world, and to make it much more accessible for people with reduced mobility.
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