 There were spas even in classical antiquity.They owed their emergence to the healing properties of hot springs which were already known at that time.In the centre of Roman spas there were thermae or Roman baths, that were generally less symmetrical than the great imperial baths in their towns, such as the Baths of Diocletian and Caracalla, because they had to conform to the topography of the terrain in which the thermal springs were located.