The Turkish bath (Turkish: hamam; comes from Arabic: Hammam) is
the Middle Eastern variant of a steam bath, which can be categorized
as a wet relative of the sauna. They have played an important role
in cultures of the Middle-East, serving as places of social
gathering, ritual cleansing, and as architectural structures,
institutions, and (later) elements with special customs attached to
them. Europeans learned about the Hamam via contacts with the
Ottomans, hence the "Turkish" part of the name.
In Western Europe, the Turkish bath as a method of cleansing the
body and relaxation was particularly popular during the Victorian
era. The process involved in taking a Turkish bath is similar to
that of a sauna, but is more closely related to the ancient Roman
bathing practices.
A person taking a Turkish bath first relaxes in a room (known as
the warm room) that is heated by a continuous flow of hot, dry air
allowing the bather to perspire freely. Bathers may then move to an
even hotter room (known as the hot room) before splashing themselves
with cold water. After performing a full body wash and receiving a
massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of
relaxation. In Turkey, the advent of modern plumbing systems,
showers, and bathtubs in homes caused the importance of hamams to
fade in recent times. |
