For thousands of years people of all cultures have reveled in the calming warmth of steam baths. So, if take the test of time as a criterion, steam bathing has undoubtedly withstood it. The Romans are famous for their sophisticated baths. In the wealthy India of 200 B.C. the mansion was not considered accomplished unless it comprised a bathhouse with a sweating-room. The Mohammedan Hamman (bathhouse) with its cupola-shaped, central steaming chamber is still a constituent of life in Moslem countries. The Turkish bath, an ancestor of the Hamman, has been well-liked in Europe for centuries.
 Hardly any natural beauty and health treatments have such an honorable history as sweat-inducing treatments. Sauna and steam bathing dates back more than a thousand years in Finland and Russia, where these treatments have been most accepted. Yet, the inhabitants of frigid climates are not alone in manifestation a zealous enthusiasm for the steamy baths. Bath houses of the ancient Romans had hot rooms and it is the Turks, the people of Middle Eastern empire that captured regions of Europe in the Middle Ages, who are often attributed to instilling the habit of steam bathing in several parts of Europe. A domelike central steam chamber is still an integral component of the Muslim bathhouse – known as Hamman (or Hamam).
The etymology of a very old Finnish word sauna is still not defined but it may have initially meant a winter abode of this kind.
The oldest known saunas had the appearance of cavities dug in a slant in the ground and originally used as accommodation in winter. It was something like sitting by the fireside for the stones were burned in fire pending they were red-hot. In order to give a sensation of increased heat, the hot stones were spilt with water producing a thick steam thereafter. As a result people could even get undressed since this would cause really high temperature.
In the long run the sauna advanced to exploit a metal wood-burning stove, or kiuas, with a flue. Notwithstanding the fact that air temperatures averaged around 160-180 degrees Fahrenheit (70-80 °C), while in a traditional Finnish sauna it exceeded occasionally 200 °F (90 °C). Löyly, or steam evaporation in other words, was created by pouring water on the heated stones.
 The bathers induced to perspire as a consequence of vaporization and high heat, washing off toxins and impurities from the body as a result. The Finns also used a bundle of birch twigs – vihta (Western dialect, otherwise known as vasta in Eastern dialect), to lash profusely the skin and contribute to further stimulation of the cells and pores.
The sauna also used by the Finns as a place where they might purge the mind, invigorate and pep up the spirit, and prepare the deceased for burial. Families bathed collectively in the home sauna since the sauna was (and still is) of no small account in their daily life. In fact, sauna was initially place of rather mystic nature where sex differences did not exist. Besides Finnish women gave birth in the sauna, as the sauna was often the cleanest construction and had water readily available.
When the Finns moved to other parts of the world, such as Northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Western Ontario, they brought their sauna customs and architecture with them, introduced other cultures to the gratification and health benefits of sauna. This caused subsequent evolution of the sauna, reckoning in the electric sauna stove, which was devised and employed in the 1950s and far infrared saunas, which have become well-liked in the last several decades.
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