page_title: Bath, Somerset
section_title: Physical geography
hierarchical_section_title: Bath, Somerset / Geography and environment / Physical geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Cleveland House over Bath Locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Taken by Rod Ward August 2006
context_page_description: Bath is the largest city in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. In 2011, the population was 88,859. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, 97 miles west of London and 11 miles southeast of Bristol. The city became a World Heritage site in 1987.
  The city became a spa with the Latin name Aquae Sulis c. 60 AD when the Romans built baths and a temple in the valley of the River Avon, although hot springs were known even before then.
  Bath Abbey was founded in the 7th century and became a religious centre; the building was rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries. In the 17th century, claims were made for the curative properties of water from the springs, and Bath became popular as a spa town in the Georgian era. Georgian architecture, crafted from Bath stone, includes the Royal Crescent, Circus, Pump Room and Assembly Rooms where Beau Nash presided over the city's social life from 1705 until his death in 1761.
  Many of the streets and squares were laid out by John Wood, the Elder, and in the 18th century the city became fashionable and the population grew. Jane Austen lived in Bath in the early 19th century.
context_section_description: Bath is in the Avon Valley and is surrounded by limestone hills as it is near the southern edge of the Cotswolds, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the limestone Mendip Hills rise around 7 miles (11 km) south of the city. The hills that surround and make up the city have a maximum altitude of 781 feet (238 metres) on the Lansdown plateau. Bath has an area of 11 square miles (28 square kilometres).
  The floodplain of the Avon has an altitude of about 59 ft (18 m) above sea level, although the city centre is at an elevation of around 25 metres (82 ft) above sea level. The river, once an unnavigable series of braided streams broken up by swamps and ponds, has been managed by weirs into a single channel. Periodic flooding, which shortened the life of many buildings in the lowest part of the city, was normal until major flood control works were completed in the 1970s. Kensington Meadows is an area of mixed woodland and open meadow next to the river which has been designated as a local nature reserve.
  Water bubbling up from the ground as geothermal springs originates as rain on the Mendip Hills. The rain percolates through limestone aquifers to a depth of between 9,000 to 14,000 ft (2,700 to 4,300 m) where geothermal energy raises the water's temperature to between 64 and 96 °C (approximately 147–205 °F). Under pressure, the heated water rises to the surface along fissures and faults in the limestone. Hot water at a temperature of 46 °C (115 °F) rises here at the rate of 1,170,000 litres (257,364 imp gal) daily, from the Pennyquick geological fault.
  In 1983, a new spa-water bore-hole was sunk, providing a clean and safe supply for drinking in the Pump Room. There is no universal definition to distinguish a hot spring from a geothermal spring, although, by several definitions, the Bath springs can be considered the only hot springs in the UK. Three of the springs feed the thermal baths.
caption: Cleveland House and the cast iron bridges of Sydney Gardens over the Kennet and Avon Canal
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "HPIM0355.JPG", "Image Make": "Hewlett-Packard", "Image Model": "Photosmart M417", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "1.900_KR", "Image DateTime": "2006:08:29 14:36:26", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "Copyright 2003-2004", "Image ExifOffset": "268", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "18418", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10626", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/151", "EXIF FNumber": "243/50", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:08:29 14:36:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:08:29 14:36:26", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "859189/314272", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1809/250", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4561/1000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "1541/500", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "51/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Average", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "69/4", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2576", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1952", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF GainControl": "165", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3", "EXIF Tag 0xA421": "5", "EXIF Tag 0xA422": "[518, 52, 0, 0, 1031, 1035, 1042, 1050]", "EXIF Tag 0xA423": "b\"\\x07\\x04\\x0b\\x04\\x12\\x04\\x1a\\x04\\x1f\\x04'\\x040\\x047\\x04@\\x04E\\x04, ... ]", "EXIF Tag 0xA424": "7", "EXIF Tag 0xA425": "[726, 659, 1400, 3786, 767, 707, 857, 7553]", "EXIF Tag 0xA426": "[105, 0, 0, 1, 38, 472, 100, 255, 4, 109, 2, 1, 1, 9999, 109, 2, 2, 0, 32, 340, ... ]", "EXIF Tag 0xA427": "[]", "EXIF Tag 0xA428": "[]", "EXIF Tag 0xA429": "[106, 98, 0, 0, 29700, 2091, 9600, 248]", "EXIF Tag 0xA42A": "1", "EXIF Tag 0xA42B": "0", "EXIF Tag 0xA42C": "0", "EXIF Tag 0xA42D": "52", "EXIF Tag 0xA42E": "[]", "EXIF Tag 0xA42F": "1", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "98", "EXIF LensSpecification": "165", "EXIF LensMake": "0", "EXIF LensModel": "0", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "41", "EXIF Tag 0xA436": "0", "EXIF Tag 0xA437": "0", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5944"}