‘Those seeking divine help for an illness or affliction might rest overnight in special temple buildings. On waking, priests of the Roman god of healing, Aesculapius, helped them interpret their dreams or visions’

I made it to the temple.

A museum banner in a pillared 18th century interior. On it is a Roman sculpted face, obscured on shadow and picked out on dramatic light. It reads ‘the goddess awaits you at the temple of Sulis Minerva’
A stone sculpted head in a dark space. It’s on a plinth and its mouth and nose have eroded away, leaving blank eyes and and impressive plaited hair arrangement like a crown over her head.
A coffin underfoot, under glass. It is small and yellowish, made of an unknown material. It is enclosed at one end, and warped by its two thousand years.
Behind a statue, its cape hanging in folds, we look down upon the green bath from a height. The statue’s counterparts face it opposite, along the walkway which follows around the edge of the bath. Each of them is permanently posed, guarding or adorning the watery centre.
Up close at the corner of the bath. The cut stone corner descends in steps, the water consumes them in its milky green opacity.
A central view of the bath from the bathside: a green rectangular body of water, Roman pillars surrounding it. A small walkway runs behind the pillars, ending at ancient walls. Above, statues line a balcony, and the windows of other old (but perhaps less ancient) buildings surround it.

Image IDs in Alt Text, Video IDs here:

  1. A green body of water, edged in stone. At this corner, a flat rock – perhaps an ancient seat – is laid over a stream trickling underneath it, from a source behind, into the milky green pool. We zoom out and see more of the walkway behind, and the length of the bath. Pillars surround the edge of the pool, receding into darkness behind. We zoom back in to the gentle trickling. 
  2. Hot steaming water gushes out of an arched hole. Dark and underground, its surfaces stained orange by sulphur or some mysterious element.
  3. A hot, bubbling green thermal spring. It is contained by straight stone edges, cut into a square with a corner lopped off where the wall of a building in the same material meets it.  We zoom into the bubbles, becoming consumed by it.
  4. Water rippling gently in the sun, down its shallow stone path. The surface underneath is stained orange by something, something invisible in the clear water. It flows underneath a stone slab, and into its destination: the large body of green water. We follow its small journey.

< Back

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.