The feature that gave this city its name was lost and lay undiscovered for about 1,200 years? This feature is now one of the city's main tourist attractions. Which city is it?

mumby21

Bath? Oct 12 03, 5:04 AM

Gnomon

I'm sure Bath is the name the questioner is looking for, but it is not correct. Bath was named after the mediaeval baths on the site. These were never forgotten about. The thing that lay undiscovered was the Roman Baths. Oct 12 03, 6:57 AM

gmackematix

Really? "Brewers Dictionary of Names" says "the name Bath relates directly to its Roman baths". Yay to mumby21, anyway. Oct 12 03, 8:41 AM

Flem-ish

1.Brewers is not the only source that believes in a direct link between the name Bath and the Roman baths. See Adrian Room's Dictionary of Placenames in the British Isles. 2. "Undiscovered for about 1,200 years". When exactly were they re-discovered? There is a ninth-century document that suggests that people at that time knew about at least some kind of "hot baths" at Bath. Whether the Roman baths were meant, is not clear from the text - which is written in a mixture of Latin and Old English. "In illa famosa urbe thaet is aet thaem hatum bathum." 3.The Roman name "Aquae Sulis" ( the waters dedicated to the goddess Sulis) survived in an alternative Anglosaxon name for Bath : Akemanchester.(The Roman camp near the "baths"?) There was also the Akeman Street which ran eastwards from Bath to St. Albans and the Watling Street. Later the link between Akeman and Aquae may have been forgotten, and a new name may have been coined. Did it refer to the hot springs the Romans knew? It cannot have been the medieval "stoves" that were meant as those would not have been typical of Bath. By the way :"Aquae" as in "Aquae Sulis" is a very common root-element in place names. French examples: Aix-les-Bains ;Aiguesmortes; Entreaygues ("inter aquas": city in between two rivers). German example:Aachen . French translation: Aix-la-Chapelle. Oct 13 03, 3:18 PM

gmackematix

I was basing my question on a British guide book which says the Roman baths were abandoned shortly after the Romans left Britain in the 5th century and were not rediscovered until 1755. I find this almost as amazing as the fact that, since time immemorial in Bath, over half a million gallons of water have bubbled to the surface every day at a constant temperature of 46 deg C. Oct 13 03, 8:56 PM