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WITNESS-Head for a Turkish bath if the heat is on http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=2006-09-21T121017Z_01_L20223002_RTRUKOC_0_US-WITNESS-HAMMAM.xml
Thu Sep 21, 2006
By Gareth Jones
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish bath might seem the last place to seek refuge when the heat is on.
But when temperatures on the streets top 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), there are few better places than a "hammam" to escape the din and stress of Istanbul life.
You may sweat copiously, but you come out feeling refreshed, serene and very clean. The famed Cemberlitas Hammam next to the Grand Bazaar in the heart of historic Istanbul is bustling even when summer heat is at its stickiest. Dozens of people, some still swathed in towels, sip tea or orange juice on divans in the spacious foyer, looking pink, well-scrubbed and slightly dazed.
The hammam has a special place in the culture of Turkey and many other Muslim countries.
Traditionally, they are more than places to bathe. They help people treat medical problems, prepare them for religious worship and serve as a social club where neighbors can gossip.
"Of course these days most Turks can wash or shower at home. But people come here for the company, for the massage, and because it makes them feel good. The hammam is the best medicine," said Rusen Baltaci, 37, manager of Cemberlitas.
Cemberlitas is the oldest functioning hammam in Istanbul, built by the great Ottoman architect Sinan in 1584, and Baltaci grew up there and inherited it from his father.
Patrons have included British rock star Sting and Ferzan Ozpetek, Turkish director of the 1997 gay cult movie "Hammam".
Cemberlitas is not a gay hammam, though Istanbul has a few. Exchanging my clothes for a small sarong-like sheet, I head into the main bathing chamber.
There, like pieces of meat grilling on a barbecue, men lie sweating on a huge octagonal marble slab heated from below by burning embers. Women have their own separate section.
Slanting rays of light stream through small holes in the domed roof. The only sounds are of customers scooping water from taps around the chamber to cool themselves and the occasional monosyllabic order from a burly masseur. Oh yes, and the odd whimper of pain as some startled tourist discovers Turkish massage has more in common with medieval torture techniques than feel-good New Age spas.
PUMMELING
Taking my place on the slab and using my scooping bowl as a cushion, I submit to a brisk pummeling from Agben (pronounced Aarben). He pulls and stretches my limbs like putty and then covers me in a thick soapy lather and scrubs my skin with a clean mitt, removing slivers of dead skin in the process.
When Agben starts kneading my soles, I wince, grit my teeth and shut my eyes. Agben then sits me down in a nearby alcove and douses me with cold water.
Robed in towels and still tingling, I chat with two Spanish tourists visiting a hammam for the first time.
"I liked it, it was relaxing, restorative," said Angel Pantoja, 25, a television producer from Toledo, who also admitted to finding some of the massage quite painful.
"But it is a bit like a factory here. There are so many tourists and the masseurs are keen to move on to the next guy."
At 36 lira ($25), this is three times the price of my local hamman in Ankara, I told him.
Baltaci said about 250 people visit his hammam each day. Like others serving tourists in Istanbul, he complains that business is not great. Bomb attacks by Kurdish separatists have contributed to the decline in numbers.
"But I feel the impact less here," he said. "I am just one of three or four really historic hammams in Istanbul. Tourists still come and fork out 20 euros for a hammam, though they may not bother buying a carpet they liked because it costs 500 euros."
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