Mix Turkish Baths and Hammam - Part 3

Mix Turkish Baths and Hammam: in which I tell you about visiting a Turkish bath near Ephesus and my 1st time in a Hammam in Marrakesh (part 3)

Hammans in Africa

Let’s jump ahead a few years when I was visiting Morocco for the 1st time. After having spent and experienced the in-house SPA of my hotel complex in Agadir, I arrived in Marrakesh. As my hotel didn’t have any of the facilities I had chosen it for (spa, entertainment), I spent as much time away as possible from it and this included taking the baths – or hamman – elsewhere.

If you have been to Marrakesh before, you’ll know that once in the Medina (old town) – and in most touristy places – you get handed out lots of leaflets for hammans. You have to be very discerning and, in my case, I wanted a place with character and not too touristy (although the latter is debateable) … so after nearly a week walking the streets of Marrakesh I came upon the Hammam Ziani.

During my most recent visit to Marrakesh I was told this Hammam is one of the oldest in town and it dates back to the xiv century. Although quite different from the Turkish baths in Istanbul, the Zian is also quite interesting. The inner area is not as grandiose or as big as the one in Istanbul – this is almost like an igloo, or better, a quarter size sphere just like the old roman ones.

They have light coming down from the vault via round holes filled with glass and all around the walls, water faucets fill concave capitels. There is something almost surreal for relaxing and taking the ‘baths’ in an environment full of history – at least for me!

Hammam Bab Daukkala

On another visit to Marrakesh I tried another Hammam: the Hammam Bab Daukkala which I found mentioned in the Lonely Planet pocket guide to Marrakesh. It seems this Hammam dates back to the 17th C.
This hammam is also in the  Medina – however in a less touristy area – and its entrance is just behind the Bab Daukkala Mosque (unfortunately non-Muslims are not allowed into mosques in Morocco nor Tunisia. Whilst it is possible in Turkey wearing adequate clothing).

Entrance to the Bab Daukkala hamman

The entrance to this hammam was nothing special and it was clearly used by locals, which were entering with buckets or washing up bowls, filled with towel, shampoos, etc.  I entered and paid the fee and was sent down a very dark corridor, which, after a sharp bend, took me to a large room full of semi naked women.
The room I entered was part of the changing room and it has a vault made of cedar-wood – beautiful and breath-taking, especially when sunlight filters through the star shaped openings in the dome. The inner rooms were once again vaulted in stone or stucco and had columns and capitels to which women, young girls & children leaned against while waiting for the ‘gommage’ (body scrub) or resting.  It had a very nice atmosphere and very matter of fact.

View of the Vault inside the hamman

When I got to the hamman I was not aware that it was a local place and therefore not equipped for tourists arriving and asking to be treated. As it was, I arrived to the Bab Daukkala Hammam hours after having landed from my flight from London/UK; and there I was with my flip flops and bottom part of a bikini and nothing else!! I had even forgotten my hairbrush! :-) In my elementary French I tried to explain my guide book said this was a place where I could get a gommage.

Around the periphery of the changing room were a few older local women, they seemed the one in charge and after a bit of surprise at my request and laughs, one of the women agreed to give me a gommage and massage and we agreed a fee. The chief older woman, sitting on the floor by the entrance to the changing room (she was like an old grandma), decided she will look after my handbag and so, after changing and with my belongings in her care, I entered the steam and hot rooms.

Inside the inner part of the Hamman 

These rooms – three of them all connected with each other – were vaulted and had columns ending with ornate capitels and marble decorated tubs collecting water from the taps. The 1st room had lots of mothers and daughters soaping up and scrubbing (gommage) young girls and little boys. There was laughter and cries of children playing or not wanting to be washed, all under the same roof in the same room.

When I finally emerged from my treatments, I was relaxed and scrubbed off of all the fatigue and dust from my journey earlier that morning.
Back in the changing room – no towel (they were not equipped for the public), no hairbrush... so I patted myself ‘dry’ with a few paper tissues and got dressed. As I did so, the chief women set up for their dinner and opened fragrant dishes of chicken and other food – and bless them they even offered me to join them! I thanked them profusely and declined – I only had my lunch an hour or so before… I found these women so nice and sweet. I would have loved to have a chat with them, however with my pigeon French and their main language being Berber, it was rather difficult.
Nevertheless the experience set the tune for my 2nd visit to Marrakesh and I left with a big smile on my face, with dripping and tangled hair in the warm December afternoon sun. What a difference from the -3C. I left in Gatwick earlier that morning!!

Hamman in Tunisia 

And what a difference my first - and probably last experience - of a hammam in Tunisia a few summers ago!
I was staying in Hammamet (which means the town of the Hammam, or so I was told) and I decided to try a real Tunisian Hammam.  After a few enquiries my Thomas Cook rep suggested a place which was situated not far from my hotel. Luck wanted that the day I visited I happened to arrive soon after a large contingent of French women from the hotel next to mine and therefore the Hammam was filled with lots of noise, prudery and queues… As usual the establishment had an entrance for women and a separate one for men. Although not equipped for the public (i.e. tourists) at this Hammam they were happy to yank up the price and take our money (typical attitude in all Tunisian places I visited).

This Hammam had been arranged on the ground floor of a block of apartment’s flats. Tiled with colourful tiles in the changing room and nothing else. Basic stuff in a modern surrounding, rather disappointing.
The treatments were also pretty disappointing, in fact rather painful.  The scrubbing was so vigorous that my arms and legs – which had been slowly kissed by the sun in the previous days sunbathing – the skin was so vigorously scrubbed to the point of rendering the already tender skin very raw and scratched! Ouch... Nothing of the nice feeling of soft clean skin after the Turkish or Moroccan baths experiences… rather the opposite…My skin – whatever left of it – was clean, unfortunately too much of it had been scrubbed off and it had gone past softness as more like very tender!

Back to the hammans I like most...

... and to the XIV century Hammam Ziani in Marrakech, only a few steps away from the Bahia Palace and well equipped to receiving tourists and wealthy locals alike. From the point of view of comfort this is probably my favourite, however the Turkish baths in Istanbul were much more attractive with their antique features in the hot room… And the hamman in Bab Doukkala is certainly the most colourful for the local folklore which I have visited.

What I like about going back to foreign places I have visited before is that I have my favourite spots – often not well known to the masses of tourists – where I can go and enjoy local culture mixed with some well deserved TLC!
Read also my other blogs on Roman baths and hammans…

Roman Baths/Hamman/Hammams - Part 1

In my ‘previous’ life I used to be part of the Educational Dept. of the Archaeological office, one of the official bodies associated with the ministry of Arts and Culture in Rome (Italy).
Having studied Fine Arts at Uni and Medieval Art for my MA, I enjoyed the role given which allowed me to see a lot of sites in Rome which were closed to the public and/or open very rarely only to special delegations which needed a guide.  As such I used to research and prepare my talks in various libraries, where - once again - entrance was only allowed to ‘selected’ ones.  Oh, how I enjoyed that!

It was, during those two years that I got to know the Caracalla Bath (Thermae) [Caracalla because this roman emperor took over from his father – emperor Septimius Severus – in the completion of this grandiose opera, he gave it his name]. 



Caracalla Baths, South view

I will dedicate a post to describe the function and sequence of bathing in roman times.  In the meantime I will tell you about my experience of Turkish baths, Hamman and so forth in the XXI century.

Since living in Britain I learned and developed a love for being pampered. 
And when I first visited Istanbul ca. 14 years ago, I studied my guide book to find things to do in the two ½ days off from my tour guide – [I had been told to visit this city only as part of a group as not safe for a woman alone, so I joined a tour organised by The Ramblers Holidays.  I found Istanbul a very safe and friendly city, easy to navigate and would not hesitate to go back on my own]. 

While perusing my guide book I came across a Hamman based in a very old roman building.  I believe the present Hamman occupies the area and perhaps shares part of the old roman baths.
After visiting this 'Turkish bath house' I was hooked. 
This was a magical place to fully indulge and relax.  You entered, paid and would change into no more than a bathing suit and a small piece of cotton cloth wrapped around your waist.

Sarongs

 
Then you entered the Hamman inner sanctum and you found yourself in a semi large room full of steam and light filtering through from the ceiling.  You’d go to the side of the room where taps and small bowls are at the ready for you to douche yourself and take your position on the marble platform at the centre of the room. 
The platform is heated from underneath.  Think of being at the beach, and replace the sand for a warm marble slab and the sun bright light filtering from the ceiling, and a warm steamy air around you.  When you reach the central platform you crawl your way over other ladies and reach the centre. Here you lie down, using your cloth as a towel and relax.  As you are doing so, you take stock of your surroundings and that is when I focused on the provenience of the light.  The domed ceiling is scattered with small round holes which are covered by thick glass, almost like bottle ends.  When is light outside and sunny (as often is) the light filters through the glass and illuminate the room/s.  Through the steamy air you see rays of light cutting the steam and touching a capitel or column, a body being washed, a tap...

(Light filtering in the Hamman - www.hammamguide.com/).

After a while, you are drying and slowly starting to sweat and slowly you move towards the border of the marble platform and eventually you’ll be the next in line to be washed, scrubbed and massaged. The women (in this case) have sort of ‘pillowcases’ full of a local nicely fragranced soap which produces foam that is deposited on your body (have a look at the pictures on this site [http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Middle_East/Turkey/Istanbul_Ili/Istanbul-1837624/Off_the_Beaten_Path-Istanbul-hammam-BR-1.html]  to give you an idea).

The scrubbing is done with hands gloved with sort of loofah and it gets rid of all the dry skin cells on your body (so even if you have just showered, you feel very conscious of how much comes out while scrubbing!), then you get massaged, your muscles are kneaded and you come out a new person. Heaven! 
At the end of the process (you get done front and back) the women take you to the outside edge of the room, and rinse you and give you a shower.  All this is done very gently in a relaxed and sometimes laughing atmosphere and in the end you are clean, relaxed and your skin reminds you of a baby’s bottom for its softness.  As you leave the steamy room you are led to a cool down area, with beds/reclining chairs, where you spend the next ½ hr or so chilling out, half asleep and sipping the wonderful mint tea they are so famous about.

When I first took a Turkish bath I was still working in the City in London and holding an often stressful job, and my first thought was that if they were to transport the Hamman to London I would be a regular frequenter, certainly every Friday after 5pm and possibly on other days too to ease the tension in the muscles! 
Unfortunately the closest thing I found to the Turkish bath in London, was a long way away from the Istanbul ones and did not do the trick.
Ps. for obvious reasons I was not able to take pictures of the inside of the Hamman I visited, hence the links to pictures I could find on the net to give you an idea of what it looks like inside. (You might have to copy + paste the links to open them).