Anatolian Rose Homes

HAMAMS – TURKISH BATH One of the truly not-to-miss experiences of a trip to Turkey is a visit to the hamam. The haman was originally not only a place where the faithful carried out the rituals of cleanliness, but a place to socialize and gossip.  Ladies would to to the hamam, accompanied by their servants, who were laden with all kinds of delicacies as hours and hours were spent in the hamam.  It was also a place where mothers would eye up the young ladies in the hope of finding a suitable wife for their sons. The hamams have a distinctive domed profile, with bottle glass directing beams of light inwards.  The first room is a square court with a fountain surrounded by individual changing cubicles.  This leads into a cooling off section which opens into the hot and steamy marble baths.  A raised marble platform lies in the centre where the unsuspected “victim” is in for a very vigorous scrub and massage, whereby dead skin (and you’d be surprised at how much of that there is!) is removed with a rough glove cloth (kese).  Then you proceed to the warm room for a soapy wash before flopping down on one of the  loungers in the cooling room, accompanied by Turkish tea or a lemon sherbert. You leave the hamam feeling extremely tired but, at the same time, feeling above the world.  Your skin radiates and you feel SUPER CLEAN and rejuvenated.