Life on our planet first appeared within water and it was only after millions of years of evolving that life began to prosper on land as well. However, even after they began to live on land, life forms still could not make do without water. Humans, too, of course have always had to make sure they have had access to sources of water on which to subsist, hence our ancestors' choice of the water's edge upon which to found nearly all of their great civilizations.

Evidence of humankind's preoccupation with cleanliness has been uncovered at many archaeological sites and researchers have determined that even societies separated by huge geographical distances and very different cultural practices display similar traditions and religious rituals regarding hygiene. Many religions exhort their believers to be clean in body and dress before they go before God. Islam demands not that the clothes worn by its followers be new or fashionable, but that the wearer's body and the clothes worn on it be clean.

We do not know exactly when it was that humans began bathing indoors, but the earliest evidence of this practice is found in India and ancient Egypt, as well as the bathing areas in the palaces of ancient Aegean and Greek civilizations. A ruin found along the banks of the Tigris in Mesopotamia is believed to be a bath dating to 859-824 BC during the reign of Assyrian Emperor Salmanasar

The Roman Baths

Though significant strides in bath construction were taken in ancient Greece, it was the Romans who developed the culture of independent bath construction. The Romans heated their houses with a system that very much resembles the central heating we use today. It was this same innovative heating system that the Romans later began using in their baths.

The Roman Empire's earliest monumental baths date from the first century BC. By this time, the baths of the Romans had developed into freestanding buildings that represented the typical "Roman Baths" as we know them. As the empire spread, so did the culture of the Roman bath, with public baths and bathrooms built in private and royal residences in places as far-flung as England, North Africa, Anatolia and the Middle East. Evidence of a Roman bath used for many years during the Byzantine Era has been uncovered in Ankara.
Roman baths were generally very spacious facilities that were used for a number of activities not directly related to bathing: athletic performances, poetry readings, and games. These baths generally had large, portico-covered courtyards both at their fronts and backs where sporting events were held. Roman baths had large pools used commonly by all bathers. The bather first sat in the hot area and then took both hot and cold baths, followed by a massage and a deep scrub. The Romans decorated their baths with statues of their gods, military heroes, artists, and royalty. Small enclosures in the hot area of the bath were used to encourage profuse perspiration. Initially the Roman baths maintained separate bathing areas for men and women but later both sexes began to bathe in the same area and at the same time. This latter practice, though, was prohibited at the beginning of the 2nd century AD when the baths started to become a hub for prostitutes and their clients.
The Romans had already bequeathed their bath traditions to the world when, by the beginning of the 5th century AD, their own baths began to lose their former architectural glory. The tradition of the bath did, however, continue to live on in the Eastern Roman Empire where it was passed down to the Byzantines. The construction of baths of both social and architectural importance thus continued during the Byzantine era.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, European practices of personal cleanliness were forced back to the home front. The grand pools of the magnificent Roman baths were replaced by the tradition of bathing in a small tub. Certain Christian authorities even disapproved of any kind of adult bathing and suggested that baths should not be taken more than once a month. In 11th century Spain, baths were viewed as the seat of evil and were blamed for the spread of syphilis. When the son of Spanish King Alphonso VI died in battle, the King decided that God was punishing him for frequenting baths, so he ordered that all public baths in his lands be destroyed. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly maintained by Spanish religious authorities that Moslems actually advanced the use of baths to wash away the sacred waters of Baptism. In fact, in the year 1568, following the expulsion of Moslems from Spain, the church ordered the destruction of all baths throughout the country, an order that caused an uprising among the people. Nevertheless, many of Europe's public baths were closed down during the 16th century. Thus it is recorded that in the following century, the French king, Louis 14th, washed only once a year, in the Spring, in contrast to their neighbors to the east, where bathing was so popular that certain western writers even claimed that Ottoman women had poor skin caused by washing too frequently.

The Baths in The Eastern World

Moslems, ordered by their religion to be clean in body and soul, were quick to inherit the tradition of the Roman bath. ln the 8th century, the Islamic Uymayyids built their first baths in Syria. Today there is a small Uymayyid bath in Israel that was built in 715. In archi­tectural style it appears to be a direct continuation of the Roman bath tradition.
Within Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and Egypt--all countries that were once a part of the far-flung Roman Empire--there remain countless ruined and still erect baths built during various periods by Moslem governments. During the 14th century, there were 35-40 baths in Baghdad. A 20th century study listed sixty baths in the city of Damascus. One thing especially noteworthy about the baths of Damascus is that not one of the 60 baths is a double bath; that is, none was set aside for- the sole use of women. It has been documented that in the 13th century there were 68 market baths in Aleppo. In the 17th century, the traveller Evliya Çelebi made note of 55 baths in Cairo. Another interesting point is that the Umayyicls also built many baths in Spain during the 8th-15th centuries when they had political control of that region. Iran also has had numerous baths built during various Islamic regimes. During the 16th century, the Mongolian emperor Babur Shah also constructed large and magnificent baths in India. earlier Byzantine hot spring and transformed it into a bath. Called the "Old-New (Eski-Yeni) Bath," this building still houses a functioning bath in Bursa.

Water and Wood Consumption

Excessive water consumption was an inevitable consequence of the bath's popularity during the Ottoman era. Those who wanted to build any facility that used water were required to first pay for the transport of this water supply to the city. Water from springs found outside of the city was transported in pipes leading to the central water supply. ln the construction of a bath, the proprietor first had to comply with the law by augmenting city water supplies before he could construct his bath. At the Ume, the amount of water to be used was written on the deed in "masura" meas­urements. The bath then ''owned" this amount of water which it therefore had the right to use free-of-charge. The ordinary bath required 1.5 to 2 masura of water daily, one masura equaling approximately 14.5 cubic meters. Baths that failed to acquire their own water supplies in the aforementioned manner often dug wells on the bath grounds. Such baths were then operated in accordance with the amount of water found in the well. This water management system continued on unimpeded until the 1980s when the city changed the laws on the books and began charging baths for water, going so far as to charge those baths operating on water being drawn from their own wells.
In the Ottoman period, wood was used for most heating purposes, but other fuel has been mentioned. In his travelogue, Evliya Çelebi reported that the baths of Diyarbakir and Arabia burned the city's garbage to heat their baths. According to another report, Sultan Abülhamit II (1879 – 1909), angered by the growing reform movement, burned these opposition publications in the pit of the Çemberlitas Bath. He only desisted after word of this was leaked - and the new stokepit he had built in the State Printing House to replace it was completed.
Water and Wood consumption was so high during the Ottoman period that the government was forced to pass conservation measures. An edict issued by the ruling sultan of the day in the 18th century forbade the construction of new baths. Despite the ban on construction, the consumption of wood eventually reached such proportions that the Great Çamlica Forest was entirely destroyed after being sold as fuel to the proprietor of the Grand Bath of Üsküdar in the second half of the 19th century. Even today, most baths are heated with wood and wood shavings, while only a handful have switched to natural gas or fuel oil.

The Baths and The Religions

The Islam and The Baths

The effect of Islam on daily lite during the Ottoman period led to many discussions regarding baths. One practice upon which Moslems agree is the "minor" ablution they are required to perform before doing their daily prayers or participating in other religious rites or ceremonies, the "full" or "gusül" ablution required after sexual relations, masturbation, menstruation or birth. Frequent bathing is also highly recommended to the faithful who wish to follow the Prophet's example.
The Arabs, though, did not build baths for the use of women, nor did they send their women to the baths that did exist. According to those sects that forbade women from attending a bath, there were narratives whereby the Prophet is supposed to have said, "Let not he who believes in God and the Day of Judgment enter a bath without covering; and let not he who believes in God and the Day of Judgment send his women to a bath." They also base their belief on the narrative, "The woman who undresses in any place other than her husband's house, removes the covering between herself and God."
The majority of the Ottoman Empire's Moslem population, however, conformed to the beliefs of the Hanefi sect. According to Hanefi teaching, women are free to go to baths as long as they do not expose those areas of their bodies as proscribed by Islamic law, which states that both men and women should cover their "private parts," that is, the parts of their body extending from their knees to their waists. It is considered sinful to expose this area, except for those special circumstances under which it is permitted. When taking a bath, the bather uses a thin wrap called a "peshtamal" to conceal his or her private area. Having this private area seen or touched is also prohibited, meaning that it is sinful to have this area massaged or scrubbed by others. Massaging of the feet is considered to be demeaning to the scrubber and it is considered extremely rude for anyone to request this kind of service.
Despite all of the detailed regulations, or perhaps because of them, it was easier for women to bathe than it was for men.

The Other Religions and The Baths

The Ottomans governed their citizens of various religions and ethnic backgrounds on a foundation of "separate but equal." The proscriptions against non-Moslem men were also much more rigid than those against non-Moslem women. According to there regulations, Moslems and non-Moslems were prohibited from using the same items at the bath. For example, the peshtemals used by the Moslems were easily distinguished form those used by non-Moslems. Non-Moslems did not wear the wooden slippers into the bath and used separate dressing rooms and bathing cubicles.
Scrubber personnel had the right to refuse to wash a non-Moslem. It was expected that bath staff would ensure that these practices were carried out without unduly disturbing or offending the Moslem clientele. It was in practice, though, only in the very rarest of cases that non-Moslems were barred from attending any bath. During the Ottoman period Christians and Jews did not experience any problems entering a bath, but they did have to abide by the segregation restrictions imposed. To conform to Jewish practices, the baths in predominantly Jewish neighbourhood had small pools, called "mikveh," into which the bather would enter. These pools had to contain a minimum of 720 liters of water and Jewish bathers entered them to cleanse their entire bodies when they washed before the Sabbath, as well as following menstruation and birthing. Upon request, these baths were used only after the water had been blessed by a rabbi.
During the Ottoman years there were many more baths than there are today and these baths played an important role in the everyday life of the citizen.

The Bath was The Only Place a Woman Could Visit

Other than the relaxation seen in the later years of the Ottoman Empire (primarily affecting those in the upper and educated classes) urban Ottoman women lived their lives in an atmosphere of restriction and restraint, forced to spend their time in their homes or in quarters set aside for women only. No woman could leave her home unattended and it was considered highly unseemly for a woman to leave her home too frequently, even if attended. Her father, and later her husband, oversaw her every movement.
The bath was the one--and thereby of course very welcome--exception to these restrictions. Every week or two Ottoman women would arrange bath excursions with their female relatives, close friends, and neighbors. The bath was a kind of women's club, providing an im­portant space in which the Ottoman women were free to carry out their social lives.

Social Baths

Contrary to male bath traditions, women attended the baths en masse. The preparations carried out before going to the bath were also a social activity in and of themselves, while they also reflected the social and economic class of the bath-goer. Parties held at the baths became important events.
Certain occasions traditionally called for a bath as well, such as the "Bride's Bath," the bath to wash and compliment the new mother, the bath to again compliment the girl who has just become engaged, the bath of the young boy child who has just become circumcised, the —15th day bath," and the "soldier's bath."

Bath Items List

For women of means, the list of items necessary for attending the bath was a long one. These grand ladies also required more attention at the bath, which meant that they had to hire more attendants; thereby increasing the amount of money they spent there. Thus a woman's bath al lowance could represent a sizeable expense for her husband. Special bundles were prepared for the bath. These beautifully wrapped bundles would include embroidered silk peshtemals, raised sandals of wood, ivory, and/or silver to keep the feet out of water, pure white soap, henna, kohl, a mirror, comb and brush, an assortment of towels, loufa cloths, silver bath bowls for pouring water over the body, and a set of clean clothes. The steward of the house would carry the lady's bundle to the bath and then attendants would prepare her dressing room and bathing cubicle with all of her accroutrements. When these kinds of important personages were bathing, the bath would also prepare a post-bath refreshment for the lady to enjoy. This refreshment could either be a jug of boza, a traditional beverage made of fermented millet, or a variety of pickles, depending on the district. Meanwhile, women vendors on hand in an area near the dressing rooms stood ready to sell and serve homemade sesame sweets.

The Brides Bath

Actually a tradition that the Turks inherited from the Byzantines, the "Bride's Bath" was an important social event. Held on a Tuesday, two days prion- to the actual marriage, the bath party would be organized by the bride's family who would invite every female relative possible from their own and the groom's family. As part of the Bride's Bath ceremony, the bride-to-be, dressed in her finest, would greet each guest as they entered the bath. The guests would then be served a large assortment of refreshments before moving into the first "warm" area of the path. There the bride's head would be covered with a large oeil and then she would be led around the room and finally into the hot bath area, followed in a procession by aIl the guests. Here the guests would sing, make speeches complimenting the bride, dance, and pray white they and the bride were washing. Once she was washed, the bride was led amongst the guests three tunes. Family members took turns pouring water over her head, using either gold or silver urns according to the social standing of die They would then toss coins over her head and onto the main hot stone in the center
The Prostitute Bath
prostitute. It was generally held that any prostitute who decided to forgo the life could be entirely cleansed with a special "forty times over" bath that would cleanse her of the "filth" of her profession. According to this very ancient tradition, the bather would first do three ritual ablutions. The bath attendant would then toss the woman's gold ring or earring into a jug of water and count to forty before pouring the water over the women. The attendant then prayed and wished aloud for the woman's cleanliness of body and soul as she washed her thoroughly. The former prostitute thus became a "former" prostitute as she had been entirely cleansed of her former Iife.

The soldier bath

The soldier bath party is organized by the young man's mother a week or two after he leaves for the service. Close relatives and neighbors are invited to this bath. Refreshments and entertainment are provided at this bath as well; all expenses being paid for by the mother. As they pour water over their bodies, the guests wish that the young man "should go and come as swiftly as water."
Derived from this is the still popular tradition of pouring water behind a loved one upon bis or ber departure.

Items of the Bath

Baths use and used a large variety of bath-specific items, some of which are no longer being produced and many of which are becoming more and more difficult to locate. Among the more beautiful bath accessories are the small, hand-worked brass, silver, or copper basins and the beautifully worked clogs. The basins are actually small shallow bowls used for dipping the clean water from the stone kurna (a kind of sink that is only used to collect clean water and which is never polluted in any way). The bather, sitting on a small stool near the kurna, pours the clean water over her body or has it poured for her by an attendant or friend. In some parts of Turkey still today, the dowry of a girl from a well-to-do family will include a silver bath basin. Even though the bath provided such basins for their customers, Ottoman upper-class women always took their own basins with them. This wonderful tradition is fast falling out of favour. The bath owners complain that when the metal basin comes in contact with the marble kurna it makes a grating sound and that is why they today substitute plastic basin bowls for the copper or silver examples of yore.
The kinds and quality of items a woman brought with her to the bath represented the bather's social status and class. One of such indicators was the nalin--the special raised clog women wore on their feet in the baths. These kept the feet out of any water and were also believed to protect the wearer from any annoying antics of the djinns. The five-inch clogs were made of wood to prevent slipping. The upper parts of the nalin were covered with mother of pearl, tortoise shell or silver repoussé. The nalin used by new brides, mothers, or women of rant< were tradition­ally covered with worked silver. These nalin were never taken home but were rather left in the care of the bath attendant. Unfortunately, the craft of nalin-making bas disappeared. In their place, today bathers either used very plain and unadorned wooden clogs called takunya or machine-stamped plastic slippers.
Another bath item that is no longer used today is the box used for carrying soap. The box was large enough to hold a large bar of soap and had tiny fioles punched in the bottom that permitted the soap to drain and dry. Made of copper, steel or silver, these special soap holders are today found only in antique shops.
Among the other bath accessories were the body scrubbing cloths made of woven date root fibres, the embroidered towels and peshtamals woven in the Ottoman textile centre of Bursa, a special powder used to remove unwanted body hair, and pumice stones for foot and knee care.

Hown do Europeans consider Turkish Baths

By the 18th century, the Ottoman bath began drawing the attention of Europeans who started to emulate the Turks by constructing similar baths in their own countries. The source of this interest was undoubtedly the accounts of the European travellers who had started to flock to the "exotic orient" together with the tradesmen and diplomats who travelled there on business. In their correspondence and articles, Europeans--who had long before forgotten the tradition of the grand Roman baths--began referring to these kinds of baths as "Turkish baths."

In addition to these accounts by male travelers, three western women who traveled to Istanbul in the 18th and 19th centuries also wrote down their reactions to Ottoman baths. Each woman had a lively account of her bath experience. Mrs. Harvey, an English woman who was the author of a book called Travels, was not particularly impressed with the Ottoman bath. "At one point I felt like a steamed lobster. Animals can feel when they are being boiled and I felt too that I was being boiled alive...When I looked at my friend, I saw that her face was as red as a beet. Close to fainting, we pleaded that they "get us out of here." But our pleading was ail in vain. We were boiled and sanded down and boiled again and sanded down, just as the tradition demanded...."

Ottoman Bath Architecture: Warmth and Light under the Central Dome

Roman and Turkish Baths: Similarities

Ruins of a Roman-era bath uncovered in Epheseus present researchers with a valuable opportunity to trace the development of the bath from the Roman to the Ottoman Turkish type. The heating system is the essential key to understanding just how the baths developed architecturally.
The hot areas of both Roman and Ottoman types were built over a brick platform. Adjacent to this hot area was the külhan, the stokepit of the fire pit used to heat the baths and the water used. The heat and smoke from this pit was carried below the floors via conduits termed "hellish paths." After heating the rooms and the water, the heat was expelled from the bath through fired clay chimney pipes built into the walls of the building. In contrast to the Ottoman type, some very large Roman baths supplemented the heating with additional stokepits built below the bath floors. The result was a radiant heating system that transferred heat from the building itself to the bathers in a very efficient and comfortable way.

Roman and Turkish Baths: Differences

Although the Ottoman baths employed the same kind of heating system as did the earlier Roman ones, Turkish style baths are also dissimilar in many ways. The primary difference grew out of a significant change in size. Roman baths were huge; their great size not having been matched by any culture or society since. Also, whereas hot and cold pools were considered essential components of the Roman baths, the Ottomans used pools only in their thermal baths for--according to Islam--still water is contaminated and therefore should not be used for washing the body. Ottomans entered pool only for medical purposes and then after having washed thoroughly beforehand. Another difference between the two types is that the Ottoman bath, unlike the highly decorated Roman bath buildings, is relatively unadorned.

Architecture

Most Ottoman baths are of the "double bath" type, so-called because of their mirrored plan, with twin men and women's facilities of the same size and structure. The other type of Ottoman bath, called the "single bath", consists of only one shared bathing facility reserved for the use of women during the day and for men during early morning hours, evenings, and nights. Most "double baths" have separate doors that open onto two different streets so that men and women do not have to meet each other on their way to or from the bath.
To simplify the heating of the "double baths”, the two bathing sections were usually built side by side so that a single stokepit could be used to heat both sections. There are, however, exceptions to this rule in which the two bathing sections were built end to end. Design­ed to act as natural insulators to retain heat, the Ottoman baths were also con­structed of very thick walls, which provided the added advantage of strengthening the buildings, thereby increasing their resistance to natural disasters such as earthquakes.
Only a few Ottoman baths have inscription panels on their walls. The earliest example of a bath with such an inscription is the bath built in Mudurnu in 1382. The earliest Istanbul example is the magnificent Mahmut Pasa Bath constructed in 1467, a building still standing but no longer in use as a bath. The inscriptions usually give the construction date, the names of its sponsors, and sometimes various compliments about the bath and those responsible for its construction.
According to one of these inscriptions, cleanliness builds the character: "If you are a person of dirty morals and character, don't expect help from a bath. If you want to be clean, first clean your heart, then clean your body."
Most baths have four major sections:

• the dressing room area
• the warm area
• the hot area
• the stokepit.

Dressing Area

Dressing rooms are divided into two types: smalI dressing rooms with wooden dividing walls, and those built from brick or stone walls. The dressing room area represents the largest space in the bath itself, with its domed ceilings even larger and grander than those over the bathing area.

Warm Area

As understood from its name, the warm area is a heated space, but one that never pets as hot as the "hot area." Like the hotter area, though, the walls and floor of this warm space are also covered in marble or stone. The warm area is not used much, but those who cannot bear the temperatures of the hotter space, or the elderly, use this place for bathing. It is also used as a kind of "way station," where people gradually get used to the heat, or cool down after the bath. The warm area forms a longish rectangle. This space also has private bathing cubicles, marble benches for resting or massage, small cubicles used for shaving or depilatory body hair removal, and toilets.
The warm area leads to the hot bathing area via a door that is both narrow and low so as not to let the heat escape.

Hot Area

The hot area is, of course, the hottest and most humid area of the bath. lt is also very steamy due to the constant flow of the water and the window here that opens onto the hot water tank. The large marble-covered central stone, a large flat platform raised 45-50 centimetres off the floor and resting on a marble base, is the hottest area of the bath. Most of these central stones, used for resting and perspiring or for the massage, are octagonal or square in shape.
The walls of the hot area are lined with 70-100 cm wide partitions fitted with hot- and cold-water faucets. In front of the faucets are low stools. This area leads to small cubicles that offer even hotter washing opportunities.
These cubicles are usually hotter than the general washing spaces and allow the bather to wash in private. Each cubicle has from one to three basins; they are usually not partitioned with doors, but those who wish may hang a pestemal over the entry for added privacy. In almost al I of the baths operating today, the proprietors have walled off one or more of these cubicles to make a sauna. These sauna-cubicles have been lined with wood and doors, and heaters have been installed for extra heat and heat retention.

In the Bath...

The bath essentially includes the scrub and massage. These two services are optional.
At the entrance you will be shown to your private changing room. Here, you will remove all of your clothes and cover yourself in the wrap, the peshtemal, that has been provided for you. Men must be wrapped from the waist down, whereas women may either wrap from the waist down, or in a manner that will conceal their breasts. Those who prefer may also enter the bath dressed in a bathing suit. The men's bath tends to be more modest than the women's. Women are freer in terms of removing or loosening wrappings to wash, but it is strictly forbidden in all baths for men to open or remove their peshtemal.

a scrub and massage. Traditionally, the bather either requests neither or will ask for both, but it is always possible to ask for only one or the other. Twenty to thirty minutes after you have rested in the hot area, the attendant will appear to begin to wash you. There are no set times in the bath, however, and you can request this service whenever you want. You are entirely free to spend as much or as little time in any of the bathing activities, sitting in the sauna, relaxing on the central stone, washing, etc. The bath proprietors will never pressure you in this regard.
If you want to use the sauna you should ask if one is available before entering the bath. Because the saunas are Wood-covered, you should first wash and then request a new, dry peshtemal before entering the sauna. A dry peshtemal is also needed if you are going to lie on the central stone. Most baths also keep pumice stones available for those who want to remove corns or dry skin as the moist climate of the bath is ideal for this. Feel free to ask an attendant to bring you a pumice stone (ponza).
The temperature of a Turkish bath will range between 35-45°C depending on the season. The temperature in a sauna usually ranges from 55-60°C.
The attendants in a women's bath are always female, while those in the male bath are male. The attendant will first use a thick, deep-scrubbing mitt worn on the right hand to give you a deep scrub to remove all flirt from within the cells. Dead skin cells will be sloughed off in another full washing. Following this deep scrub and thorough washing, you will lie on a dry peshtemal spread over the central stone and be given a massage, the kind of massage that is the calling card of the Turkish bath. This massage is deeply relaxing as your muscles are now completely loose in this warm and moist atmosphere. Relax and let the attendant move you about freely. Once accustomed to the massage, you will get an appreciation for the acclaim of the Turkish bath.

The Bath and Health

Turkish baths are almost always housed in large and spacious buildings. Despite this, the high temperatures and constant use of hot water combine to create a high humidity atmosphere, one to which the body is not accustomed. The conditions here raise body temperatures, setting almost all the organs of the body into action as they expend energy. This, in turn, is very beneficial to the body.
Resting in a place that is very hot and humid, then having the body deep scrubbed, followed by a thorough washing with lots of soapy suds all work together to help the body slough off lis dead skin tells and promote the growth of new tells. Since it takes, on an average, three weeks for the replacement of our outer skin tells, the speeding up of this process at the bath helps to keep the skin alive and healthy.
For thousands of years physicians have understood the positive effect that heavy perspiration can have on a person's well-being and this very human act is used in many cases as a medical treatment. Perspiring is as important to the body as breathing. A person who rests for fifteen minutes in a hot sauna, cubicle or on the main stone will expel 1.5 litres of perspiration. Heavy perspiration is said to ease the work of the kidneys. Ten percent of the content of perspiration is made up of unwanted substances. Over time, air pollution and other factors, such as wearing synthetic fabrics, will act to clog our pores, making it more difficult for our bodies to perspire. The heavy perspiration that we experience in the baths completely solves this problems. The opening of our pores in the bath is helpful to the treatment of skin blemishes and cellulite problems. By perspiring we get rid of the toxic substances in our body, act to balance body temperature, and deep clean our skin. Perspiration also helps the body expel the lactic acids that are a source of muscle pain. Our muscles also relax in the hot bath, a. long with the heavy perspiration. The elderly often experience difficulty perspiring and so, if they are not suffering from any diseases that would prevent them from attending the baths, a visit to the Turkish bath can be very helpful in this regard. Bath-induced perspiration is also very helpful to those suffering from the flu, arthritis, headache, or those with a hangover. In Turkey it is common that those who find themselves too intoxicated to go home will go to a bath where they will sleep tilt morning. Then in the early morning they will take a bath that will both sober them up and get rid of the hangover.
The hot and humid climate of the bath increases the body's need for oxygen, thus activating the respiratory system and increasing breathing rate. The heart conforms to this acceleration and also begins beating faster. This, in turn, speeds up the flow of blood through the body, supporting the body's defence systems. The increase in heart rate may constitute a risk for those who suffer from heart disorder or hypertension, and we suggest that those with these physical complaints consult their physician before going to a bath. Physicians also do not recommend the bath for those who suffer from chronic respiratory ailments. Those with open sores should also consult a doctor before washing at a bath as the hot and humid climate may make it easier for the person to get an infection through the skin opening. The heat of the bath may also trigger a migraine in people who suffer from such problems.
Those individuals with weak immunity systems should rest at least 10-15 minutes in the warm area before moving into the hot area or before moving back to the area of normal temperature. This precaution is why Turkish baths have this warm area.
Baths collect their water in large storage tanks where it may stand for a long time.

Turkish baths have sometimes marble floors. Because these floors are wet they may also be highly slippery. The wooden slippers and clogs that were used in the bath have mostly dissapeared even though a few baths still use wooden clogs for safety.

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