Guide
The Bath Museum in the Şahinbey district of Gaziantep is a themed museum, holding the status of a certified private museum under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It occupies the Paşa Hamamı, built in 1577 by Lala Mustafa Paşa, which the Gaziantep metropolitan municipality restored and opened to visitors in 2015.
The baths of Gaziantep differ from classical bath architecture in lying below ground level. Following the steps down from the surface, the visitor enters the cold room, the first part of the museum, and after it come the warm room and the hot room in turn; the water tank and the furnace are the two further parts that made the bath work.
What sets the baths of Gaziantep apart is the gulleytin, in other words the mikveh pool, which stands in the hot room: people of the Jewish faith entered and left it three times in certain circumstances, seeking to be cleansed in a spiritual sense.
The collection holds clogs, copper bowls, ewers, soaps, wraps, towels and scrubbing mitts, and is filled out with wax figures showing the traditional Ottoman culture of the bath — its etiquette, the male and female attendants, the men's bath, the bridegroom's, the bride's and the new mother's baths, the custom of looking over a prospective bride at the bath, and the eating, drinking and entertainment that went with it. Alongside the display panels there are touch screens and a soap-making machine, which give visitors something to take part in.
