The Diappearing Hammams: Much Ado About Nothing?

(This story was published in Community Times magazine. You can also read it here)

Today in Cairo, the word ‘hammam’ may just mean the washroom in your house, but eleven centuries or so earlier and for a long time thereafter, a hammam meant a place where people went to luxuriate in steam baths, to get therapeutic massages for their aches and pains and to catch up on the local gossip.

Surprisingly, for a city that boasted one hammam for every single day of the year, there are only around six functioning hammams today and their decaying condition requires urgent action to save the ruins and restore the beauty of these monumental witnesses of Cairo’s glorious past.

this is the slab of stone in Hammam El Arbaa, where you will be given a scrub down

Despite several attempts by friends to dissuade me, (ranging from dire warnings of being infected with a skin disease to outright expression of disgust), I was curious and determined enough to hazard a visit to a hammam to get a glimpse into the much-feted bathhouse culture of Egypt.

I traverse the narrow lanes behind the Boulaq market, dodging splatters of horse-dung, on my way to Hammam El Talat and Hammam El Arbaa.The neighborhood looks poor, neglected and nostalgic...much like the people who frequent the hammams of today. But the owners of El Arbaa-Um Azza and her husband Mohamed el Mesry, aka Okal- insist that their hammam is patronized by people from all walks of life, including people from “high levels’, ‘classy’ women and even actors, though curiously, they cannot remember any names.

Down a flight of steps and a winding corridor later, is the reception room or maslakh of Hammam El Arbaa, where groups of women lounge on the sofas covered with a flowered fabric, sipping on hot tea or smoking the hookah, while enjoying a Bollywood film on the huge television screen. A faux fish tank and a huge Turkish chandelier that hangs in the middle of the room, completes the kitschy decor. Though it still functions as a hammam, Okal has strategically transformed the place into a quirky cafe as well as a gymnasium for men in order to attract clientele, though nothing from the tenth century depictions of hammams with frescoed and embellished walls remain.

Um Azza shows me around the place; proudly pointing out that the place was a garbage dump when they first bought it in the year 1999. “It was a hammam in the morning and a motel at night.” A hammam since the time of the Mamluks, its recent owners had allowed the place to fall apart. “Through sheer hard work and perseverance, I made it what it is today,” says Okal proudly. “From rotten fish, I made juice,” he says citing a famous Egyptian proverb.

Ever the savvy businessman, Okal tells me “you are a little bit dark, come to the hammam, they will massage you and you will become fairer.” But is it enough to bring people to the hammams? What about the hygiene and the dilapidated condition of the building and the neighborhood?Hearing this, Um Azza instantly takes umbrage and it takes some pacifying to calm her down. She says that the place is scrubbed with disinfectants regularly and god willing, she will be able to renovate soon.

Entrance to Hammam El Arbaa...the owner is obviously not coy!

Just a few meters away is the less impressive establishment of Hammam El Talat. Um Mishmish and her son take care of this hammam, which has been in their family for close to two hundred years. The hammam is heavily crowded on Tuesdays, the day of the week after which it has been named, with more than 20 women coming in on that day. Um Mishmish loves what she is doing and has no complaints. She echoes the sangfroid of Um Azza that god willing she shall make repairs to the hammam and points to her masseuse as her biggest ‘challenge’ in jest.

The ritual of going to the hammam has disappeared with the transformation of old neighborhoods to touristic sites and with the withdrawal of the rich from the old districts of Cairo towards the new neighborhoods of Zamalek and Heliopolis. Government apathy has been cited as one of the prime reasons for the disastrous situations of the hammams in Cairo. But Okal is categorical that he does not want any government interference as this would result in them being converted into a ‘museum’ for tourists and cites the example of the Sinaniya hammam.

He does not feel threatened by the mushrooming of spas all over the city and says that a spa can never offer what a hammam does. “The hammam is not built randomly; we are two meters below the ground and the labyrinthine corridors of the hammam are built in such a way that the body cools gradually as one comes out of the hot steam bath.”

Agreeing with him, May Telmissany, co-author of the book “The Last Hammams of Cairo,” says that “the new spas do not provide the beautiful old environment of the hammams, where relaxation and meditation is still possible. The settings on one hand and the type of services offered on the other hand help the client reach this sort of beatitude and serenity that the spa rarely provides.”

But could the growing popularity of the spas be the reason for the decline of the hammams? Telmissany disagrees and says that the type of clients for each facility is completely different and “the transformation of the hammams into spas will ruin the beautiful and specific traditions of the hammams and once again will prevent the poor from the benefits of the establishment.” Okal compares a spa to a fancy restaurant where one has to eat with knives and forks and a hammam to a home where one eats with hands. “A hammam is ‘baladi’, where people are at ease,” says Okal.

the reception foyer of the Hammam

Unlike Morocco, Turkey or even Syria and Yemen, going to the hammams is not a recommendation that one finds in the guidebooks to the country. Telmissany describes her experience in a hammam in Morocco that still respects the old traditions of bathing and massage as “incomparable.” “The spa should copy the hammam, not the opposite! And this is what the Moroccans understood when they renewed the ritual of the hammams by introducing some standard elements from the spa, calling the new spas: hammams.”

Obviously, these countries have been successful in looking after their heritage. Egypt is indecisive about what it wants to do with its rich legacy of hammams; but the scales seem to be tilted towards its complete oblivion. Okal and Mishmish, with their business acumen have added features to their hammam, more suited to the current times but without preserving the aesthetic simplicity that once characterized the Egyptian baths. The government restores the old hammams- only to convert them into government offices and museums. An indifferent population considers the hammams as very unhygienic and debauched places.

So, is the restoration and preservation of the hammams a battle worth fighting for? Especially, in terms of the costs involved, relevance to the present times and impact on the environment? Telmissany has an emphatic ‘yes’ as answer to the question. “The relevance of the hammams is social and historical. They might not generate large income, but they certainly can in the future if they are renovated and re-opened to the public. Their renovation should take into account environmental issues such as pollution and waste disposal, which might be neglected at the time being because of the scarce income they generate.”

She might have a point; after all, Abu Sir, an early Arab historian once said "Your town is only a perfect town when there is a bath in it."

Hammam El Arbaa: 5 Ansary Street, Boulaq Abul Ela, Downtown
Telephone: 0105790760, 29860588
Open: 9AM-5PM for women; 6 PM to 6AM for men