2 Best Sights in The Southeast, England

In 1960, workers digging a water-main ditch uncovered a Roman wall, thus beginning a decade of painstaking archaeological excavation of this site, which revealed the remains of the largest, grandest Roman villa in Britain. Intricate mosaics (including Cupid riding a dolphin) and painted walls lavishly decorate what is left of many of the 100 rooms of the palace, built in the 1st century AD, possibly for local chieftain Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. You can explore the sophisticated bathing and heating systems, along with the only example of a Roman garden in northern Europe. An extension has added many modern attributes, including a video reconstruction of how the palace might have looked. The site is 1½ miles west of Chichester town center, a 30-minute walk.

Believed to have been a hotel for Roman travelers crossing the English Channel, the remains of this nearly 2,000-year-old structure were excavated in the 1970s. It includes some Roman wall paintings (mostly dedicated to Bacchus, the god of revelry), along with the remnants of an ingenious heating system. Check ahead as ongoing renovations have resulted in closures.