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historic places are covered with carpets.” The most beautiful examples of early architecture. “Conqueror of the fire, as a result of a large part in this historic building was destroyed. Underneath the bright blue neon “MEN” is a cheap red sign with sloppy blue text that proclaims the bath was built in 1445. I come upon the Firuzaga Hammam by accident while wandering through the antique shops in Çukurcuma. Better services.Ĭurious and without any real plan, I set out to visit five very different baths in a 24-hour period. And like so many things in Turkey, the men have preference. The one thing they have in common is that they are segregated, often with different hours and entrances for men and women. There are small, modest neighborhood joints, old gems past their prime, and towering marvels of antiquity. These days, the baths come in different shapes and sizes. In Istanbul, in particular, the custom of bathing blended with the grand Roman and then Ottoman tradition of great people building public works and wudu, the Islamic practice of washing before prayer, created marvelous public baths that were not only central to the lives of those who lived there but also an essential experience for visitors.ĭome of a hammam. Nowhere has that tradition survived more than in Turkey. Thermae, as the bathing was known, were a secular ritual the remained at the heart of Roman culture for a thousand years. Like so many Greek innovations, the Romans tweaked and expanded and perfected the practice. The history of public baths in the West stretches at least as far back as the Spartans, who first used hot stones and then coal fires to turn the practice of leaping into ice-cold water into something a little more luxurious. But at the time, I wasn’t focused on politics: I was interested in the hammams, or Turkish baths.
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I spent five days in Turkey a few weeks before the referendum, wandering through the city under posters and massive banners of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.