 Culture facts
Where: may be found throughout Turkey
History: amalgamation of Turkish, Roman and Byzantine bathing culture and presently fundamental to Islamic purifying beliefs
How to join in: be ready to strip, and get peeled and steamed your delicate areas in depth - then start to relax!
Not like the intensity of a sauna and a celebration of the ritual of purification and relaxation, a Hammam has mild and calming heat.
Hammams are located all over the Turkey. Hammam means "to heat" and enjoys advantages of steam and perspiration which removes toxins from the organism, and opens up the pores and soothes the mind. Ages ago, if a man dared to enter a female Hammam or woman entered a male Hammam, it threatened with death penalty. These days the sections are often situated next to one another but still asunder.
The history of the Turkish bath springs from the Turks appearance in Anatolia. Turkish bathing traditions they brought with themselves were merged with that of the Byzantines and Romans. Soon it became a mode of living, a place where people regardless of their social positions could mingle without stinting.
Important private events are also celebrated in the bath sometimes, such as brides bathing on the eve of the marriage or commemorating a newborn infants 40th day on earth. The bride sits in the bath in her yashmak whereas single girls toss coins into the pool in the hope of a suitable husband would fall to their lot.
The oldest bath existing in Istanbul, which is nearly 400 years old, is the Cagalolglu. It is the authentic Turkish bathing experience decorated with arcs, columns, vaulting and bubbling fountains. Material purification is half of the Islamite creed, and bathing has a significant religious underlying reason. The bathers strip to the skin and wear towels over the waist, shoulders, and the head, and wear lob cob (shoes made of wood) on their feet. In the harara, a steam room, the towels are shed. The tellak empties the room from specters, thought to stay behind steam.
There are five phases for the duration of the hammam:
1. Inuring the body with heat
2. Robust and healthy massage
3. Peeling off the outer layers of the skin and removing superfluous hairs of the body, armpit and pubic, which is a hygienic measure in hot countries.
4. Covering with soap
5. Recreation
The value of a typical Istanbul full service hammam will comes to approximately $40, but in the Turkish countryside this can be just about $10.
| 
