Tag: Hammam

  • Hamams, hospitality, and memories of Istanbul

    Hamams, hospitality, and memories of Istanbul

    The entrance to the Turkish bath

    “Follow him,” the woman at the counter said and pointed at the young man walking down a graffitied alley. When we decided to go to the hamam, or Turkish bath, during our free time on Saturday, we were expecting something relatively similar to an American spa. We were surprised to find ourselves wandering down a back street from the office to the women’s section of the bathhouse, where we were greeted at the entrance by a poster of women lounging in the bath playing the mandolin. The bath itself was a large, open room with low sinks around the periphery and a large marble platform in the center. Women would take turns laying on the hot marble, being scrubbed and washed by the ladies working. It was a scene you would never find in America, where people love their privacy and personal space far too much to be washed in a room full of strangers.

    It was little moments like these that made my ten days in Istanbul such an amazing experience. Moments like visiting my first mosque and hearing the azan (Muslim call to prayer) ring through the city streets for the first time. Moments like crossing continents and spending the evening sitting along the Bosphorus on the Asian side of the city drinking tea and looking out over the water. Moments like bargaining forever at a bazaar trying to reduce a price by a single Lira.

    One of the things I will remember the most, however, is the incredible hospitality of our Turkish hosts and tour guides. Take the family, for example, that let us into their home for dinner on Sunday night. We were connected with them through a contact in a local foundation, but we were still complete strangers to one another. They spent the entire day cooking an incredible, multi-course meal for fifteen young Americans they knew essentially nothing about. We stayed at their home for hours, drinking Turkish tea, eating baklava, and joking with the hosts long after the dinner was over. And then there were our student guides, who showed us around the city but stayed with us long after their tours were over.

    It made us all think about how we live our lives here in the States. It would be much more difficult to find people willing to drop everything and spend the day (or days) with a group of young strangers from abroad, letting them into their homes and into their lives. We never seem to have time for anything in America besides working, and seeing how generous the Turks were with their time made this even more glaringly obvious. One night in the cab back to the hotel we all realized that this experience has made us want to be as hospitable to others as our new Turkish friends were to us. At the end of the day, that is one of my favorite things about traveling – highlighting cultural differences that make me want to live my life in a better way. I am so grateful to the Global Engagement Summit and everyone who made this trip possible. I cannot possibly think of a better way I could have spent my senior spring break, and this trip has truly been one of the highlights of my college experience.

    -Liz

    via Hamams, hospitality, and memories of Istanbul « Northwestern.

  • Treatment of the week: Get a Turkish hammam without leaving the country

    Treatment of the week: Get a Turkish hammam without leaving the country

    By Tracey Blake

    Anyone who’s holidayed in Turkey will know that a hammam — a large steam room used in the Middle East for communal cleansing and scrubbing of the skin — is a sure-fire way to give your body a boost.

    And, thankfully, I didn’t have to board a stressful easyJet flight to indulge myself.

    The elegant Bentley Hotel in London’s Chelsea is home to the Le Kalon Spa, with an authentic hammam constructed of grey marble imported from Istanbul.

    Turkish delight: A hammam is a large steam room used in the Middle East for communal cleansing and scrubbing of the skin

    I have booked it for a full, private skin MoT. I’m going to steam my skin, have an all-over exfoliation, a body mask and, finally, a massage — all in a balmy 38c temperature.

    Marble benches flank the walls and deep basins of cold water are on hand. These benches conduct heat and lying on one feels gloriously warming. My pores open up and my skin starts to breathe. My muscles are warmed up and are ready to be pummelled.

    Just as I’m getting comfortable, a therapist emerges through the steam and gets to work exfoliating my body using La Sultane De Saba’s black olive soap and a Turkish Delight body scrub.

    If I get too warm, I give my therapist the nod and am soaked with bowls of cold water . . . It’s a perfect quick fix.

    Once I’m sufficiently clean, there’s a honey-and-rose moisturising mask followed by a 30-minute relaxing massage. Again, I am drenched in cold water if I get too warm.

    An hour later, I leave the spa feeling super soft, squeaky clean and totally relaxed. I will return.

    The Combination Hammam lasts 60 minutes and costs £115. The Bentley London hotel, thebentley-hotel.com

    via Treatment of the week: Get a Turkisk hammam without leaving the country | Mail Online.

  • Bathhouse of Sultan’s favorite reopens in Istanbul

    Bathhouse of Sultan’s favorite reopens in Istanbul

    By REUTERS

    For decades the 16th century bath house built for the Ottoman Empire’s most infamous woman, Roxelana, languished unnoticed between the Blue Mosque and the Haghia Sophia, relegated to life as a carpet showroom.

    The turkish bath (hamam), known in the West as Roxelana, is located close to the Hagia Sophia, it is now a state run carpet shop. (File photo)
    The turkish bath (hamam), known in the West as Roxelana, is located close to the Hagia Sophia, it is now a state run carpet shop. (File photo)

    Ottoman bath houses, structures once so important they were designed by the finest architects of the realm, fell out of favor as Turkey modernized and its citizens installed running water and bathrooms in their homes.

    Yet the architectural pedigree of many of the bath houses, the rising number of foreign tourists, and a resurgent interest among Turks in all things Ottoman, have revived the fortunes of the old stone hamams as developers recognize their huge earning potential.

    Water streams out of a tap at the newly restored Roxelana’s hamam in Istanbul. (File photo)

    Water streams out of a tap at the newly restored Roxelana’s hamam in Istanbul. (File photo)

    Roxelana’s hamam, a long, domed building completed in 1557 by the prolific architect Sinan, is the latest Istanbul bath to be restored to its former grandeur—emerging after years of neglect as an oasis of gleaming marble and inviting alcoves.

    “Turkey is learning to place more importance on its past,” said architect Tevfik Ilter, who led the 17 million lira project.

    “In the last 15 years we started to restore our buildings. Before that the focus was on constructing things fast. If a structure was broken we’d just try and fix it with concrete.”

    In 2007 Istanbul authorities decided to return the hamam to its original use after a 105-year hiatus and launched a tender for its restoration, won by a tourism development group.

    The bath will open in June and charge 86 euros for the customary steam bath, peeling and soap massage. The same service in one of the handful of old local hamams still in operation in Istanbul would cost around 15 euros.

    Visitors to the separate men’s and women’s sections of the bath enter a soaring domed chamber the size of a small mosque, with tiers of wooden changing rooms circling the walls.

    After donning a cotton wrap known as a pestemal and slippers they enter the steamy, white marble bath. Once the moisture has penetrated their skin, an attendant scrubs the body to remove the dead skin cells, before dousing the visitor in water.

    “It is not just about bathing. It is a purification process, a ritual process,” Mr. Ilter said.

    Hamams are a tradition common to most Muslim countries as Islam emphasizes cleanliness and washing, particularly before prayer. But besides their original religious function they were also a place for people to relax and mingle.

    While Istanbul now offers four or five historic luxury hamams to chose from, the figure of Roxelana, long a subject of Western orientalist fantasy could prove a particular draw.

    Born into a Ukrainian family as Aleksandra Lisowska sometime around 1500 she was captured by raiding Crimean Tartars and sold as a slave in Constantinople, where she was selected for the harem.

    Through her charm and guile she managed to catch the eye of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, displacing his former favorite and eventually becoming his wife.

    The bath’s reopening coincides with the screening of a television drama based on the life of Roxelana, which has captivated Turkish audiences, but also drew complaints for its sexual content and liberty with the truth.

    Its glamorous costumes, sumptuous interiors, and the endless conniving and plotting among the women of the harem have fed the resurgent local interest in the Ottoman Empire, from which modern Turkey was formed in 1923.

    History has not viewed Roxelana kindly, portraying her as a meddlesome schemer. Her son Selim, inherited the empire from his father but proved a disastrous ruler and an alcoholic.

    Selim is said to have died in 1574 after slipping and banging his head in a hammam while drunk.

    “We don’t know for sure whether Roxelana ever came to her hamam. She died in 1558 and the bath was finished in 1557,” said Ilter.

    “Some people think the Sultan built it for her so bathers would pray for her in her ill health. Either way the location of the hamam, right opposite the Haghia Sophia in a central position shows her power and influence.”

    Old Istanbul is littered with the ruins of old hamams, most of which are beyond saving. But other restorations are already in the works, particularly of structures built by Sinan.

    “History used to be about war and about being a hero. Now we are learning about the history of architecture, leisure and social life,” Mr. Ilter said.

    via Bathhouse of Sultan’s favorite reopens in Istanbul.

  • Anti-Hamam Confessions, Gulsun Karamustafa, at Rodeo, Istanbul

    Anti-Hamam Confessions, Gulsun Karamustafa, at Rodeo, Istanbul

    Anti-Hamam Confessions, Gulsun Karamustafa, at Rodeo, Istanbul

    By TRoueche | Published: May 27, 2011

    hamam

    Rodeo continues to be one of the most exciting art spaces in Istanbul; displaying a quality of art, and an international, avant-garde awareness that is all too often missing from spaces in the city. This year has already seen fantastic shows of the work of James Richards and Gabriel Lester, and curator Sylvia Kouvali’s latest offering is no less impressive. Anti-Hamam Confessions is a thoughtful work by veteran artist Gülsün Karamustafa, which draws upon her personal relationship with hamams.

    Karamustafa’s work is essentially about her dislike of turkish baths. A video-piece, it explores a hamam in Tahtahkale built by Mimar Sinan, which has been turned into a shopping centre, whilst a voiceover describes her hatred of ‘these places’. For Karamustafa, growing up in modern apartments with bathrooms, there was never any need for the hamam; indeed she has never been to one. Instead she began to hate these historical monuments, and the way in which they are interpreted by tourists. At the heart of her work is an annoyance with the orientalising gaze of the West and the way in which it is applied to the citizens of Istanbul. By presenting a Sinan hamam which is now a shopping centre, Karamustafa questions these perceptions. Meanwhile the slow dripping of the water becomes unbearable – a form of water torture rather than the sound of a hamam – jarring with the building’s new function.

    Karamustafa is a veteran of the Turkish art scene but continues to provoke and surprise. Elsewhere her work, most recently Etiquette at the IFA galleries in Stuttgart and Berlin and The Monument and the Child at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, have drawn on similar ideas of memory, history, and identity as well as exploring the problematic of orientalism, to great acclaim.

    May 27 – June 25, Rodeo, Tutun Deposu, Lüleci Hendek Caddesi No 12, Tophane, 34425 Istanbul

    via Anti-Hamam Confessions, Gulsun Karamustafa, at Rodeo, Istanbul.

  • A rub with history in Istanbul’s hammams

    A rub with history in Istanbul’s hammams

    Jemma Nicholls

    Last Updated: May 20, 2011

    Courtesy of Chris Orrell

     

     

    The recently opened Espa Spa at the Edition Hotel in Istanbul. Courtesy of the Istanbul Edition

     

     

    The central stone at the Cemberlitas hammam, one of the city’s oldest baths. Cemberlitas Hamami

     

     

     

    I feel like a boiled lobster, red-faced and raw, lying prostrate on a slab where millions of others have been cleansed before me. For my induction to the age-old ritual of the hammam, I have chosen one of Istanbul’s most historic baths, Cemberlitas (www.cemberlitashamami.com), which was built in 1584 by Nurbanu Sultan, the wife of Selim II, who was known for his love of pleasure over politics.

    Situated on Divanyolu Street in the heart of the city, and among Istanbul’s greatest monuments – it overlooks the Column of Constantine and is close to the Grand Bazaar and Sultan Ahmet or Blue Mosque – the tall double-domed building is sandwiched in between local shops – a barber’s, fruit and vegetable shop – and a traditional Turkish cafe. Today, Cemberlitas has to shout its presence by a huge white sign and narrow steps leading down to the front doors.

    Inside, the reception area is a small kiosk. I wait in a queue of residents and other tourists to pay upfront. As well as the traditional hammam, Cemberlitas also offers other add-on treatments such as body massages, reflexology, manicures, pedicures and waxing. The prices are extremely reasonable and a traditional hammam (entrance fee plus 15-minute body scrub and bubble wash) costs 59 Turkish lira (Dh137). For an added treat, you can include a 30-minute oil massage for an extra 40 lira (Dh93). There is no time limit in the baths themselves and, once you have paid the entrance fee, you can steam, and use the Jacuzzis and relaxation areas for as long as you wish. I make my way through the narrow, humid corridors and into the baths. Late afternoon sunlight streams through the holes pierced in the dome roof. The building consists of three floors and each one appears to have been designed with socialising in mind; large sofas and chairs are placed everywhere and I find women of all ages and sizes lying sprawled, semi-clad, over loungers. This is girl bonding without inhibition.

     

    The attendants are friendly but hurried, and I’m quickly steered into the changing rooms. After being thrust a pair of disposable briefs and a small cotton towel or pestamal, I change and shuffle apprehensively towards the huge double doors.

    The heat and steam hits me as soon as the doors to the central bathing area are open. It takes a few seconds for the steam to clear. The palatial room displays all the staples of traditional bathhouse architecture: the Cemberlitas was built as a double bath for men and women, roofed by broad domes more than 18 metres high; a large central hot marble platform is surrounded by kurna, bathing basins, and halvet, private bathing cubicles.

    While the architecture is anticipated, nothing prepares me for the sight of 50 semi-clad women lazing, bathing or being massaged on all sides of the room. A moment later a burly attendant whips off my pestamal, throws it to one side and orders me onto the central stone. Modesty has no place here.

    I find a space to sit but its skin to skin as we are packed like sardines. I’m later told by the proprietor, Mustafa Bayrak, that more than 500 women and around 350 men bathe here daily. It’s usual for women to come often – his wife enjoys twice-weekly visits with her friends and family for at least six hours at a time.

     

    I look around; three friends are chatting while they wait for their treatments; a mother and her brood of giggling children are bathing in a private wash area and crowds of women are talking nosily in the hot Jacuzzis. A visit to the hammam is not just about cleaning; it’s a social experience.

    “It’s the women’s coffee-house, where all news of the town is told, scandal invented …” So wrote Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, describing her first visit to a Turkish bath in Sofia, while travelling with her husband’s embassy to Turkey in 1716 (Turkish Delights, Philippa Scott; 2001).

    Twenty minutes later, I’m lying face down on the hot marble stone as my masseuse, Laura, vigorously scrubs me from head to toe with a leifeh, a wash mitt, before flipping me over to scrub the other side. She slides me about, lifting my arms and legs with experience and determination. The scrubbing is rough, like a child who has spent the day playing in the mud and is now being brandished by her furious mother. I’m being repetitively scrubbed and sanded down, scrubbed and sanded down, just as tradition demands.

    Next, I ceremoniously douse myself with warm water before a bubble wash with citrus Aleppo soap. Laura rubs the soap into a torba, a silk-like pillowcase, which when combined with the air, creates tiny bubbles that remove any dead skin. “You’ll need lots of soap!” exclaims Laura accusingly as bubbles lather up and completely cover me.

    After a final rinsing with tepid water (read cold) to tighten the skin and strengthen the circulatory system, Laura wishes me good health – “sihhatlar olsun”. I’m shown into the Jacuzzi area where I relax in the hot baths before my massage.

    Feeling invigorated and cleaner than ever before, I shower and change and complete my experience by indulging in a chicken shwarma from the cafe next door.

    After a restful night’s sleep, I head off to experience a contrast: a hammam treatment updated for the 21st century courtesy of the Espa at the new Edition Hotel (www.editionhotels.com), which officially opens next month.

    Architecturally, the two “bathhouses” could not be more different. The Edition is housed inside the former 15-storey HSBC headquarters. The exterior is corporate and imposing, striking but not welcoming. Inside it has a minimal, angular coolness but with elegant results. Features include the Espa-managed spa, 78 guest rooms, a Cipriani restaurant, a nightclub and a host of trendy bars.

    The benefits of visiting a new spa go beyond blissful solitude. Operational for only a few weeks, the spa is gleaming – the huge rain showers, gym and heated swimming pool looked unused.

    Sprawling on three levels, the 1,858sq m spa is an unflinching contemporary take on the Arabesque aesthetic. Decorated in rich wood veneer, embossed bronze floors and leather upholstery, the atmosphere is quiet and serene. Opulent and totally self-indulgent, I feel I could be in any high-end spa in the world, totally removed from the outside hustle and bustle of Istanbul.

    The spa’s vast menu is impressive, influenced by customs from around the world, including Turkish culture, and all treatments can be personalised. Keen to compare my experience yesterday with the modern-day take on the hammam (the hammam suite looks exquisite) I opt for Espa’s signature hammam treatment. An hour of pampering costs 250 lira (Dh580) and starts with ritual bathing and scrubbing on the central stone, followed by a honey and milk mask, body massage plus hair wash and conditioner.

    I have an hour before my treatment to relax and enjoy the thermal suite. Consisting of multiple steam rooms, saunas, relaxation areas and my personal favourite, an icy snow cabin where, after the sauna, you can brave the real snow of this tiny Swiss Alpine chalet to boost your circulation. These facilities are worth the trip alone. There is no throng chattering around me. The spa has been designed so guests can flutter between the desired facilities in solitude.

    The hammam suite – all scented oils and generously proportioned fluffy towels – boasts the traditional large central stone and wash areas but has the added luxury of en suite facilities. And, of course, privacy.

    After a long steam session, I’m led to the central stone where the ritual of washing and exfoliating begins. Just the two of us, I’m comfortably wrapped in a towel, unexposed. I immediately relax. This is until the harsh rough leifeh mitt is used to exfoliate my skin. Rigorous and slightly uncomfortable, I quickly realise that this is the truly authentic and essential part of the hammam treatment. Once again I’m sent into the steam room with a glass of iced water to drink. My polished smooth skin is then covered in bubbles, massaged into a thick soapy lather and then gently rinsed off. After my last steam session, my body is enveloped in a warm mixture of milk and honey; I feel wonderfully cocooned as my face and neck are gently massaged.

    After the treatment, I glide into the relaxation room. Dark and grand with huge double beds or individual loungers lining the restorative space, it’s a perfect place to unwind with a cold glass of cucumber and lemon water. In stark contrast to Cemberlitas, mobile phones, noisy chatter, fizzy drinks and shwarmas are not welcome here.

    By the end of day two, my skin is incredibly soft and it’s impossible to judge whether this is the result of Laura’s rough touch and Aleppo’s finest soap suds or the milk, honey and more modest approach of the Espa treatment. Which do I prefer? Visit the Espa to be indulged, but if you want a traditional hammam, you’ll be disappointed in its glossy halls. And as Mustafa from the Cemberlitas says, “If you’ve never been to a Turkish bath, you’ve missed one of life’s great experiences and never been clean.”

    jnicholls@thenational.ae

     

  • On The Road: Getting steamy in Istanbul’s spa of the sultans

    On The Road: Getting steamy in Istanbul’s spa of the sultans

    Kathryn Tomasetti, in Istanbul

    Reuters  Sweating it out: On hot marble at a Turkish hammamReuters  Sweating it out: On hot marble at a Turkish hammam
    Reuters Sweating it out: On hot marble at a Turkish hammam

    Stepping into one of Istanbul’s hammams is like parting steamy curtains on to ancient Asia Minor. Visitors bake on marble slabs, sweating out life’s impurities; attendants massage, pummel and buff; bathers emerge baby soft and squeaky clean.

     

    Yet as the city modernises, its historic hammams are slowly morphing into a tourist-only attraction, charging the equivalent of £30 a session. This year, I asked around to find out where the locals go to soap up, soak and sweat it all out. The top tip? Head out of the city across the Sea of Marmara to Termal (yalovatermal.com), the ancient thermal springs just outside of Yalova.

    I grabbed my husband and my swimming costume and we were off. An hour-long boat ride from Istanbul’s Yenikapi Ferry Terminal followed by a 20-minute bus ride and we were in the leafy resort of Termal Kaplicalar, the creatively named “Thermal Thermals (Spa)”.

    Built by Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, Termal was beloved of Byzantine rulers. Ottoman sultans expanded the complex during the 19th century, constructing most of the ornate bathhouses still in use today. In 1911, an international jury awarded Termal first prize as “the world’s most healing hot waters”. Even Turkey’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, spent summers here: his holiday home, Ataturk Kosku, is currently under transformation into a state museum.

    We found Termal’s visitors to be a colourful mix of Turks, young Emirati men and older Russian women, all taking in the local waters. There are three hammams (including one that is mixed-sex), an Olympic-sized outdoor spa pool fed by a scalding spring and two-person private steam baths. Pongy thermal gas inhalers are dotted around the complex, and the three hotels onsite remain pleasantly dated.

    Best of all? We shelled out a mere £35 per person, covering unlimited spa access, plus hotel room, buffet breakfast and three-course dinner, served by bow-tied waiters and backed by the warbling tunes of a Turkish folk singer. All of which proves that it always pays to ask the locals.

    Footprint’s ‘European City Breaks’ is available in May (£14.99). For a 35 per cent discount off any Footprint guidebook go to footprinttravelguides.com and enter ‘indy11’ at checkout.

    via On The Road: Getting steamy in Istanbul’s spa of the sultans – Europe, Travel – The Independent.