Gay hamam istanbul
Aquarius Istanbul - Queer friendly Turkish hammam/ sauna
Aquarius Istanbul - Gay amiable Turkish hammam/ sauna
Nur Hamam – Newly renovated in October 2017, there is both an Istanbul gay hamam and sauna here. Looks just like a regular building from outside but inside is a gorgeous historic bath accepted with local, younger gay men.
Aquarius Sauna - A extremely un-friendly gay sauna in Istanbul expose 24/7. While they have a jacuzzi, pool, sauna, intimate cabins and cafe, there is mostly just masseurs here who pester for their service, discouraging speaking between guests and any deed that’s not with them. Has so much potential but in reality is filthy and a glorified brothel.🤮
Firuzaga Bath – Popular with local hairy middle-aged men, Firuzaga Bath is a tiny, historic Istanbul lgbtq+ hamam located only a short saunter from Galatasaray Square. Very cruisy, well-known location for male lover men to discretely met but it’s somewhat dirty and very public.
It was a cold gray afternoon in Istanbul’s Çukurcuma neighborhood
famous for both its numerous antique shops and the setting for Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk’s novel and namesake Museum of Innocence. I came to Çukurcuma to call on the Museum, only to comprehend that it was closed because it was Monday.
So I decided to walk down the steep narrow streets of the neighborhood and see what I could find. I passed shop after shop of antique stores, some of them shuttered behind rusty doors, others hemorrhaging hand-crafted chairs, dusty crystalware, and other items that could be found in your grandmother’s living room.
Woodsmoke puffed out of a nearby chimney, wafting seamlessly into the sky above. I walked by a small tearoom with low chairs and tables, their patrons drinking from short glasses filled with saccharine amber tea.
At the finish of the street was a hammam–a Turkish bath. It was chilly and I wanted to warm up, so I stepped in without any hesitation. The lobby was a simple wood-paneled room; a young man with a short beard sat at the desk. I paid roughly $15 for a private “cabin” to change into.
Before I had made it more than three steps towards
Five Hammams in 24 Hours
A waterlogged Canadian takes a very specific tour of Istanbul.
I spent five days in Turkey a few weeks before the referendum, wandering through the city under posters and massive banners of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. But at the time, I wasn’t focused on politics: I was interested in the hammams, or Turkish baths.
The history of public baths in the West stretches at least as far back as the Spartans, who first used boiling stones and then coal fires to turn the train of leaping into ice-cold water into something a tiny more luxurious. Prefer so many Greek innovations, the Romans tweaked and expanded and perfected the practice. Thermae, as the bathing was known, were a secular ritual the remained at the heart of Roman culture for a thousand years.
Nowhere has that tradition survived more than in Turkey. In Istanbul, in particular, the custom of bathing blended with the grand Roman and then Ottoman tradition of great people building public works and wudu, the Islamic practice of washing before prayer, created marvelous universal baths that were not only primary to the lives of those who lived there but also an vital experience for visitors.
Thes