Michael Aaland's Sweat

Illustrations below from:
Michael Aaland's Sweat




The Cagaloglu hammam in Istanbul. Photo copyright by Mikkel Aaland


Reconstruction of an ancient Greek bath by Rene Ginouves.
From Sweat, copyright Mikkel Aaland

The Diocletian bath rendered by Edmund Paulin and digitally
enhanced by Mikkel Aaland. All rights reserved.

The Cagaloglu hammam, built in the 1500s , is the oldest functioning hammam in Istanbul. This 19th century drawing shows the harara (hot room) where the bather sweats, washes and is masssaged. Illustration from Sweat, copyright Mikkel Aaland

Turkish baths on Jermyn Street in London as portrayed in the Illustrated London News,1862.
From Sweat, copyright Mikkel Aaland.

Advertisement from the 19th century.
From Sweat, copyright Mikkel Aaland

A foreigner's view of the Finns savusauna in 1799.
Giuseppe Acerbi, the Italian traveler, is shown peering
in on the left. From Sweat, copyright Mikkel Aaland.

A group of my friends in a public sauna in Richmond, California.
Photo copyright Mikkel Aaland.

Sioux sweat lodge frame and sacrificial pole ca. 1900.--Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives. From Sweat, copyright Mikkel Aaland.

George Catlin's drawing of the Mandan's sweat lodge in 1845.  From Sweat, copyright Mikkel Aaland

A Crow sweatlodge.--Museum of the American Indian.
From Sweat, copyright Mikkel Aaland

The hot air bath of upper California depicted by Alexander Forbes in the early 1880's.
From Sweat, copyright Mikkel Aaland

Aztec sweat house from Codex Magliabecchi

A temescal in San Bernardino Chalchiuapan, Mexico.
Photo copyright Mikkel Aaland


My friends enjoying a "tent" sweat near a creek in Chico, California.
Photo copyright Mikkel Aaland.

In the mid 1800s, the hammams began losing their wealthy patrons who were feeling some of the effects of the Industrial Revolution in the West. Although the bathroom-with-shower had not reached the Near East, only the poorer classes were using the bath (as shown here). The rich began withdrawing their support from the baths, stripping them of their ornaments, carpets, mosaics, and leaving them to lapse into decay. Photo copyright Mikkel Aaland. All rights reserverd.
More photos of modern-day hammams
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The London Hammam after the blitz

Image: Blitz over Westminster: City of Westminster Civil Defence bomb incident photographs, 1940-44;text by Roy Harrison (City of Westminster Libraries, 1990.)

The remains of the London Hammam after the blitz on the night of 17 April 1941.

This page enlarges an image or adds to the information found below:
Sources for a history. Part 6: The rise of the Victorian Turkish bath
London's first Victorian Turkish bath. Part 3: The first in London