The Anantara Spa at Eastern Mangroves has brought the first ever Turkish hammam to Abu Dhabi, and with it they’ve brought Kadir Mortepe. Hailing from Turkey’s Adana region, Kadir has been working as a hammam therapist for over 14 years. He’s a passionate man who prefers to speak in his native language to better communicate his wisdom, so we comply in spite of our clumsy Turkish.
‘Our people live long,’ says Kadir, ‘and the hammam has something to do with it. When you exfoliate effectively in the hammam, your skin is able to breathe. You receive oxygen, your metabolism works better. These things lengthen and improve the quality of life.’
And the best news? ‘A frequent hammam visit is good for preventing or tackling cellulite. It’s good for circulation, for relieving muscle tension. Many traditions employ the therapeutic benefits of stones,’ he adds. ‘The göbek tası [the heated central pedestal] is marble and it’s heated. Just lying on that allows your muscles to slacken and relax. This is the most fundamental aspect of the hammam and is beneficial in itself without a scrub or a massage.
‘In the past a bather would be made to sit in the hammam for 25 minutes before they’d be ready for the scrub. Now of course we have steam and sauna rooms, which speed up the process, so your skin is moist and easy to exfoliate in five minutes. After the steam we have the bather lie down on the göbek tası and pour water over you until you’re good and relaxed. Then starts the scrubbing with the kese.’ This is done with a rough bath mitt which does wonders removing dead skin and grime. ‘Then we’ll do the foam massage and then rinse you off.’
Kadir shows us around the Anantara hammam chamber and demonstrates his fancy foam making trick which involves Turkish olive soap, a copper pot full of water and a fine muslin sown on three sides like a long pillow case. ‘Everything we use here is from Turkey, from the olive soap and copper beakers, to the pestimals,’ he adds, referring to the traditional plaid hammam sarong with which bathers maintain their modesty.
‘In Turkey, the tradition was for people to visit the hammam every week before or after the Friday prayer,’ he says. Sadly, this tradition is less commonplace today, but still very much alive. ‘Six hundred years ago, we inherited the tradition of the Roman public baths from the Byzantines,’ Kadir continues. ‘It was in the Ottoman era that the domed Turkish hammam was designed, with the göbek tası. And then the hammam culture developed and the tellaks [staff who scrub and wash bathers] came in, and eventually going to the hammam became a social event.’
In the Ottoman era, the hammam was not only a place for the faithful to carry out their ritual cleansing, it was also a place for socialising. For women, things got particularly lively. As you would for a picnic, the ladies would prepare food and refreshing drinks a day before a family visit to the hammam. It was a place where people made business deals or caught up on gossip and news. It was where matrons could get a good look at prospective daughters-in-law. And of course it was the place for pre-wedding parties; with food, music and entertainment amidst all the washing and wedding preparation that went on.
‘Traditionally after the hammam there would be a place called the ılıklık [warmness], a rest area where people would sit and drink some tea or ayran – which is the Turkish variation of laban. Ayran is perfect after a hammam because it helps restore the salts you’ve lost in the bath and also normalises your blood pressure.’ Perhaps that’s why another post-hammam beverage of choice in Turkey is pickle juice. Yep, that sour brine your jarred gherkins come preserved in. ‘Resting in the ılıklık helps to acclimatise a person’s body to a cooler but still warm temperature without hitting them full on with the cold, which really isn’t good for you.’
If all of this has got your skin itching for a good scrubbing, watch out for our forthcoming tried and tested review of the Turkish hammam at the Anantara Spa at Eastern Mangroves.
The traditional Turkish hammam is a 40-minute treatment and costs Dhs400 at the Anantara Spa at Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa by Anantara (02 656 1000).
