Hammam

The Turkish bath, or “hammam”, owes its origin to Roman terms . The name "hammam" comes from the Arabic word "ham" - " hot ." The hammam was heated with the help of a large boiler with water under which a fire was burning. Steam generated from boiling water was supplied through small openings in the walls. The interior of Turkish baths has always been luxurious, because even the Prophet Muhammad declared a trip to the bath mandatory, saying “Cleanliness is half the faith” (Muslim, Taharet, 1). So Turkish baths became widespread. Subsequently, a special “hammam philosophy ” developed in Turkey , special traditions and rituals were associated with it. The Turkish bath has always been considered a source of true pleasure in the East.

Often, churches of other religions and, in some places, the surviving Roman baths were rebuilt under hammams. The main distinguishing feature of this type of baths is the special temperature regime. It is not as hot as a regular bath or sauna (temperature in the range from 30 to 55 degrees), ideal for people who do not like or can not tolerate high temperatures. It also provides a Turkish bath with popularity among women. Women's baths in Turkey are always built next to the male ones, they have one source of water and heat supply, but different entrances. In the case when the local community or the developer, in modern terms, did not have enough funds for the construction of a separate bath, the bath was built alone. A separate day was allocated for women (often they share even and odd with men), in which a rope (as a sign of "Women's Day") is simply hung up across the front door. This applies to a large number of Muslim countries in the Middle East and Central Asia.

For Turkish women, visiting baths is a separate ritual, part of public life, a place where you can discuss business, share news, gossip. Every Turk is obliged to release his wife to the bathhouse once a week. Women gathered in a hammam as for a holiday: dressed in beautiful clothes, took sweets with them. In the hammam, they drank coffee and talked, often spending all day from morning to evening.

Literally in every village in Turkey you can find a hammam. There are about a hundred of them in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. The most famous hammam is Jagaloglu Hamams, in which, according to the owners, the English king Edward, Kaiser Wilhelm, Ferenc Liszt washed themselves. In the city of Bursa, there are the so-called Old Baths ("Eski Kaplaja"), which were built during the reign of Emperor Justinian and are considered the most beautiful baths in Turkey. In Istanbul, 5 historical hammams have survived, one of which was built by Mimar Sinan ^[2] .

According to many doctors, hammam has a beneficial effect on human health. For the first time in Europe, Turkish baths appeared in Germany , England (a great merit in the spread of Turkish baths in England belongs to Richard Barter ) and America in the 19th century . In those days they wrote that Turkish baths are a remedy for many ailments. Many experts claimed that Turkish baths help in the treatment of diseases such as colds , asthma , bronchitis , fever and cholera .

Today, a hammam is often offered in conjunction with the accompanying spa treatments : massage , peeling ; in addition to the Turkish bath itself, the same complex can have a pool and a sauna.

• Turkish bath (Tsarskoye Selo)