This tradition, which combines technical, religious, and societal elements, first emerged centuries ago and is still widely practised today due to the unmatched relaxation and spirituality that hot water and steam baths provide.
The hammam is spread throughout Morocco, particularly in Marrakech:
The city’s public hammams combine tourism wellness and well-being with the practice of long-standing cultural traditions. People from all social classes use the hammam.
History of Hammam in Marrakech
Although the Hammam first appears in Marrakech’s history in the seventh century, Christian society has been using Hammams since Roman times.
There were many “Thermae” baths in the Roman Empire, which surrounded the Mediterranean.
These persons were experts in the hydraulic processes for supplying, storing, heating and discharging water.
The Muslim religion was established later, in the seventh century AD, after the Arabs on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast conquered Alexandria and Syria (642 AD).
Moorish baths (related to “Al Andalous” Muslim Spain) or Turkish steam baths, which have their roots in Roman thermal baths, were created as a result of their impact in the Ottoman Empire, the Maghreb, and the Middle East. According to one anecdote, the Alexandria library’s scrolls were burned during its demolition to heat the hammam.
The term “hammam” (Arabic for “hot water”) refers to a steam bath that replaces the traditional cold water swimming pool of Roman thermal spas because it is deemed unfit.
Muslims tend to wash and rinse themselves with running water to remove pollutants.
The design of baths and hammams
Nearly 2000 years before the start of the Christian era, remnants of this system can be found dating back to both the Greek and ancient periods.
However, due to its extensive use, the Romans were the ones who significantly enhanced this approach. The term “hypocaust” refers to a system of pipes or galleries in the hammam’s basement that allows hot air to flow while allowing the ground to heat the thermal baths’ rooms or basins. Slabs that supported the floor rested on pillars that were 60 and 120 cm tall.
The soil’s thickness, which took a while to warm up, allowed the heat to be held in place.
The building’s front entry has a fireplace outside with an opening to feed it as part of the heating system.
The smoke and heat might pass through another hole and be directed toward the hypocaust. Additionally, the walls were doubled, allowing the warm air to move freely throughout the spaces. The fireplace is close to the room with the highest temperature, and it radiates warmth into the other rooms.
There are multiple rooms that make up the steam bath, and as you move away from the fireplace, each area gets progressively warmer. One or more chimneys remove the smoke from the building’s other side. With heated walls, a room’s temperature can rise to 30 or even 50 degrees.
The person in charge of heating the water is known as the Farnatchi.
The hammam receives wood or sawdust from the Farnatchi.
The working environment is challenging because of the intense heat and black smoke.
The Farnatchi is also where the adjacent Riads bring their cooking utensils to the oven to be deposited in the Hammam oven’s embers.
Tanjia is a common meal in Marrakech and it takes 4 hours to prepare in an amphora.
However, some hammams are modernizing now to consume less firewood, spend less money, and treat the environment with more respect. It has been designed to heat hammams with biomass boilers that burn olive kernel fuel in addition to solar, ground, and solar-heated methods.
Details on the Baths by Country
Roman hammams typically included three rooms: the “frigidarium,” which allowed for repose, the “tepidarium,” which allowed for care and massage, and the “caldarium,” which allowed for sweating preparatory to care and was where the steam mists were placed.
A stove was placed in the laconicum, a circular room without a pool and with a dome-shaped ceiling, but it was hot and stuffy.
Turkish Bath
The Camekan, or entrance hall, is a feature of Turkish hammams.
It could be a huge communal hall or a space with individual cottages.
You were once given a Pestemal, a garment for covering your body.
You’ll begin to perspire in the heated Hararet room.
The Gobek Tasi, an elevated marble slab in this area, is where you will receive soaping services utilizing black soap made of olive oil. Finally, you will receive a scrub with the Kese glove. With a cup of tea in hand, you can unwind in the Sogukluk, a chilly room.
Religion
Following the spread of Islam, the hammam will emerge throughout the Arab-Muslim world.
The Qur’an recommends using the Hammam in accordance with its principles of ablutions, which call for the cleanliness of body and soul prior to prayer.
In the Islamic homeland, the Hammam is frequently located close to the mosque.
Islam encourages doing ablutions to purify oneself prior to prayer, particularly on Fridays before the five daily prayers, hence it has a significant religious connotation.
Today, hammams are still widely used in Muslim nations.
Men were the only ones allowed in the Hammam at first, and soon women were allowed.
Christians and Jews were permitted in. However, men and women are always segregated because they visit the city at various times, locations, and days. The hammam was seen as a spiritual centre and as being good for women’s fertility.
The Hammam’s social scene
Either a private or public hammam exists.
Only wealthy households had a steam room in their homes in the past.
It typically just had one hot room.
The hammam is a well-liked location when it is available to the public.
Except in the dwellings of the notables, hot water did not then reach the homes.
In order to prevent heating loss during the generation of hot water, a fireplace had to be heated for an extended period of time or even permanently. Thus, expensive and time-consuming continuing maintenance was required. Thus, the cost for each one could be decreased because of its pooling. Arab hammams or Roman baths have long been gathering places for people.
There, people of all classes met separately for men and women.
All socioeconomic classes mix together and there is no social hierarchy in the Hammam.
When the hammam was the only permitted public location to visit, it provided women with a significant opportunity for well-being and a respite from the stresses of daily life.
In the past, mothers would search for potential marriages for their sons.
Social conventions allowed for the determination of each person’s family circumstances based on the colour of the towel.
The Hammam Today
Even today, the Hammam in Marrakech History is very popular in Morocco where not everyone has the modern comfort of running water or a bathroom.
The traditional Hammams, called “Beldi”, are the public hammams. There are always rooms for men and another section for women. Otherwise, if the hammam does not have a separation, certain days or periods of the day are reserved for either sex.
The ritual consists of staying in the warmest room for a while to activate sweating and dilation of the pores of the skin, allowing toxins to escape. Soap yourself with Hammam in Marrakech Moroccan natural black soap and then rub energetically with a kessa glove to remove impurities from the skin’s surface.
The entrance fee for Hammam in Marrakech is MAD10, but no utensils or products are provided. You must bring your kessa glove, black soap, shampoo, sandals and a towel. It is possible to call an employee of the hammam who will exfoliate you. The rate is 50 Dirhams.
Moroccans who frequent the Hammam in Marrakech usually go there once a week. The female Hammam in Marrakech is a place where you take care of your body with the clay ghassoul, and of your hair with henna. Without taboos, women can move around naked.
