What Is a Turkish Bath?
Going to a hamam for the first time? Steam, warm stone, a rough mitt and a blanket of soap: here is what a Turkish bath is, and how a first visit in Alanya works.
Quick answer
A Turkish bath — in Turkish, a hamam — is a bath built around heat and water. You warm up in hot, humid air, an attendant scrubs your skin with a rough mitt called a kese, and a wash in soap foam on heated marble follows. Our Alanya programme adds a sauna, a steam room and around 20 minutes of aromatic oil massage, with hotel transfer both ways.
Roots
Bathing traditions in this region go back a long way, and by the Ottoman era the hamam belonged to everyday life. It was where people got clean, got warm and caught up with each other — as much a meeting place as somewhere to wash.
Two things still mark it out from every other kind of bath: the scrub with the kese, and the wash in soap foam.
The warm stone at the centre
A traditional hamam is built around a large raised slab of marble that is kept warm — the göbektaşı, literally the “belly stone”. You stretch out on it to heat up, and it is where the kese and the foam happen.
No two hamams are built exactly alike, so the one you visit may not match the pictures. The rhythm is broadly the same, though: heat, scrub, foam, rinse, rest.
Hamam, sauna or steam room?
| Hamam | Sauna / steam room | |
|---|---|---|
| The air | Humid warmth and heated marble | Sauna: dry, fierce heat. Steam room: gentler heat, thick with steam |
| Your part | Lie back while an attendant scrubs and washes you | Sit and sweat |
| On our programme | Kese, foam wash and the oil massage | Both, as the warm-up |
How our Alanya programme usually runs
- You are picked up at your hotel and taken to the hamam serving your area.
- Sauna, then the steam room, to warm through.
- An attendant gives you the kese scrub on the warm marble.
- Next, the foam wash, with a massage beneath the bubbles.
- Around 20 minutes of aromatic oil massage.
- Time to cool off, then the ride back.
Who should skip it
A hamam is not recommended during pregnancy or for anyone with a heart condition. If you have another medical condition, see your doctor first and let the staff at the hamam know before you start. Mention allergies before the oil massage, keep your last meal light and save the alcohol for later.