TEHRAN – A centuries-old Hammam, a public bathhouse with eye-catching traditional elements, has undergone restoration in the oasis town of Aqda in central Iran.

Located in Ardakan county of Yazd province, that bathhouse used to serve as a venue where people socialized, and shared the latest news and exchanged views about politics and everyday life.

There are hundreds of bathhouses in the country that feature eye-catching decorations such as vaulted ceilings, intricate tilework, mosaics, and wall paintings.

Some cities had separate bathhouses for men and women. They were usually built next to each other. However, there were some bathhouses, which were used by men and women at different times of the day. In that case, at daybreak, a longhorn (booq-e javaz) was blown to announce that the bath was ready. Men came to the baths from daybreak till the afternoon. Women could use the bathhouses from then to sunset. In some cases, five days were allocated to men and two days to women.

Persian literature is full of proverbs, narrations, and folk stories about bathhouses, which indicate the importance of the place in ancient times.

In those days, mosques, bazaars, houses, bathhouses, and subterranean cisterns constituted the main elements of each Iranian city.

Currently, such bathhouses have lost their original function since nearly all people have bathrooms in their homes as the result of a ubiquitous clash between traditionalism and modernism.

AFM