The oldest and most common use was, of course, just relaxing in the comforting warm waters. However, the Romans used geothermal water to treat eye and skin disease, as well as to heat buildings at Pompeii. For centuries, the Maoris of New Zealand have cooked "geothermally". And, since the 1960s, France has been heating up to 200,000 homes using geothermal water.

Information courtesy of the Geothermal Education Office