What is Kaplıca and Turkish Hamam?

When I was growing up my father used to take the entire family to a different part of Turkey each summer. This gave us the opportunity to visit many different places in a detailed fashion, even the smallest towns.

Mom and dad would always ask us, well ahead of summer, about where we wanted to go for vacationing. Usually around March dad would open his road map and gather us around to make summer plans. Everyone of us had a say in decision making for our next vacation destination. We, the four siblings, usually preferred a different Turkish shore each time. Mom and dad on the other hand liked to go to a new Mediterranean location each year because of the year-round warm climate which was pleasing and relaxing. At the end we always voted for it was always a democratic decision that everybody won in some way. Knowing where we were headed towards months before the approaching summer helped my parents continue planning until the last minute.

During such planning sessions mom and dad always had a kaplıca (an indoor thermal spring) visit in the plan on the way to our final destination as well as on the way back. As the kids of the family we definitely enjoyed the kaplıca, but we were usually more excited about the beaches.  On the way back home, we were anxious to get back, since we had missed home for so long, and were hopeful to skip the kaplıca. But no matter what, we always stopped at a near by kaplıca both ways. Year after year, the same scenario that made us love kaplıcas beyond our wildest dreams!

Going to a kaplıca always helped the family, especially my parents. It would help them relax and relieve the stress and always got them closer to each other. It provided an opportunity for mental and general health therapy as well as recreation for the whole family.

During the second visit to a kaplıca, which marks the end of summer vacation, four little siblings who tanned heavily under the sun would get washed up thoroughly. Although mom tried hard to stop us, we would always make a scene in the kaplıca and subconsciously disturb the old ladies wading in the pool. Now I do realize that it was wrong of us, but yet so much fun for a bunch of little kids who were constantly jumping in the pool, splashing healthful water and screaming to hear the eco return from many angles. All in all, my childhood visits to the kaplıcas were very memorable and significant and I appreciate them more and more every day.

Nowadays I enjoy the hamam and kaplıca equally. A hamam, also known as Turkish bath, is one of the ancient world’s most widely exported customs. The tradition of the Turkish bath was adopted from Romans and then perfected by the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks. Kaplıca has the same mentality, except it is built on areas where thermal water can be found. Both the hamam and the kaplıca are public baths and the philosophy behind them is to cleanse the body and the mind.

I may not have liked neither the hamam nor the kaplıca if I hadn’t been introduced to the kaplıca during my childhood summers.  I have Turkish friends who never put a foot in neither of them and even the thought of going in one would make them raise eyebrows. Visiting a kaplıca or a hamam sounds strange to some of my friends and so they just don’t want to experience any such thing. Maybe the moral of the story is that we should introduce our children to our traditions.  A kaplıca or a hamam is a staple of Turkish culture, and I am thankful that my parents introduced such phenomenon to me in early ages.

There are many similarities between hamam and kaplıca :

They are indoor facilities with hot and soothingly humid rooms for steam soaking; warm rooms with kurna (bath basins) usually carved out of marble for washing and massaging; and cold rooms for resting, napping and changing.

There are tellaks who help wash people and give them massages. Nalıın (special wooden slippers), tas (bowls for pouring water over body), peştemal (a large linen cloth to wrap body inside) and kese (rough mitt to exfoliate body by rubbing) are all common terms in both the kaplıca and the hamam.  There is always a warm göbek taşı (central stone or naval stone) for lying down, getting ready for washing and getting scrubbed head to toe.

Bathers in a kaplıca or a hamam first relax in a room (known as the warm room) that is heated by a continuous flow of hot air that allow them sweat for a period of time. This is just the time for lying on the central stone wrapped in a piece of cloth called peştemal. If comfortable with nudity, lying without wrapped in peştemal is totally fine. Most Turkish women go naked in the kaplıca or hamam covering only the private parts. Lying down and having the entire body and mind rest for a few minutes on the central stone is not one’s everyday experience! Bathers may then move to an even hotter room (known as the hot room) for performing a full body wash. If prefer to stay on the göbek taşı, it is perfectly fine to get scrubbed there. Finally the bathers retire to the cool room to a deeper relaxation with a glass of tea (cay) and/or water. After cooling and a resting they may go to their changing sections and get dressed.

The biggest difference between kaplıca and the hamam is that the kaplıca has one huge pool and several little ones full of hot/warm thermal water. One should not jump, swim or move fast in the pool water because it is for relaxing but not for swimming. People go in the pool and stay still for a few minutes for şifa (healing).

Both the hamam and the kaplıca has separate sections for men and women. Although not customary, one may find hotel hamams mixing genders. In general, male tellaks tend in the man section and females in the women’s area.  The entrance to men and women section is separate and far between each other.

Often these structures are antiquated and are covered with elaborately crafted and ornately designed tiles and marble. The walls, the floors and the doors almost whisper to the bathers’ ears that they have seen so much for so long. Being a bather in a hamam in Turkey is almost a journey to oneself because through cleanliness and massage are  good for body and mind.  I would recommend tourists/visitors to try and experience hamam and/or kaplıca to understand what I mean.

I can say that in Turkey the daily shower is a lot more detailed than most other people are used to. By detailed I mean that whatever Turks do in the hamam, such as thorough cleaning of the hair and longer washing of different limbs, is transferred over to custom showers.

Although leisurely bathing and cleansing are the main activity in the kaplıca or in the hamam, they stand for more than that.  In reality, a Turkish bath stands for the cleansing and purification of not only the body, but the mind as well. They are also great for socializing because it is customary to go to the hamam with many friends, family members, and neighbors.

Lately the concept of modern SPA has taken the place of the kaplıca. The shortcoming of a SPA is that it tries to provide health and healing with plain water whereas kaplıca has natural thermal water with earthly healing powers. The term SPA has a modern sounding nomenclature and tends to attract more people because it provides top notch amenities. However I would never exchange the kaplıca for any modern SPAs because, to me, going to and bathing in a kaplıca is naturally healthy whereas SPAs are manmade sources of relaxation rather than earthly cleansing.

The kaplıca or the hamam is an experience that leaves one feeling new born, fresh, clean, light and pure, and often times leaves one feeling ready to take a nap, which further replenishes ones energy.

To me, taking a long Turkish bath in the kaplıca or the hamam is the equivalent of being in the fountain of youth, if you know what I mean! The kaplıca or hamam experience makes our daily bath or shower seem like such a trivial and insignificant affair in comparison! Don’t pass up the great experience and definitely visit one while in Turkey if you want to feel relaxed, refreshed and very, very clean.

For Turkish version please go to: Hamam