TURKISH BATH MASSAGE

Turkish Bath Massage is a massage offered in a Turkish Bath or ‘Hamam’ in Turkish. Hamam is a steamy, warm, humid room surrounded with marble-lined sitting, marble wash-basins running hot and cold water to mix to dowse yourself using traditional metal bowls. In the centre of the Hamam is a raised marble platform called göbek taşı (tummy stone). This is a bearable hot platform for you to relax, sit, lay and work up a sweat.

Once your body is warmed up, you get a brisk rub of your body on the platform with a coarse loofah mitt to remove layers of dead skin (peeling). Then the masseuse/masseur will cover you head to toe with rich white frothy bubbles using a cloth bag (foam wash) and massage all over your body with a gentle pressure (foam massage). The massage usually lasts only about 10 minutes and there is no specific principles or techniques used in the massage. Nowadays some Hamams additionally offer customised massage on request in a separate treatment room, such as Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue Massage, Aromatherapy and Hot Stone Massage.

Learn more about Turkish Bath Massage from:

• Victorian Turkish Bath