Hammam Nureddin, Damascus

What did the LP say about it first?
“One of the oldest and grandest functioning hammams in the country”

Easy to find?
Oddly very hard. The hammam is in a major thoroughfare in the middle of the souq and is described well in the LP. But the hammam has no sign of any kind and working out which of the doorways to go through is difficult. Compounding the problem was a reticence on the part of any of the souq traders to understand us when we asked where the hammam was.

Easy to enter?
Once we made it through the right door we were acknowledged.

Easy to understand what was on offer?
A guy on a mobile seemed to be in charge and in between puffs on a ciggie he pointed us at a dog eared menu of the facilities in the place.

Pricing:
After making it clear we wanted a bath and a massage the soap, the scrubbing mitt, the towels and post-hammam tea were all added extras which we only found out about when we paid

Welcome room
The entrance room is very grand indeed with a 30ft high ceiling and two separate main raised seating areas. Lush carpeting is soft underfoot. The coat hooks require at least one member of your party to be 6.6ft tall. The Kurdish guy who brought us towels and our peshtemel was exactly that height thankfully.

Facilities:
Entering through to the hammam itself was a little disappointing after the grandeur of the main room. There was a little wooden sauna cabin which was turned off. The two toilets were of the Eastern variety.

Turning left past the sauna you come into the shower room. Two showers had cold water only. The little massage room is off to one side.

Turning left again you enter the sink room. The steam room is opposite. The steam warms the room, which is only about the size of an average double bedroom. With sinks arranged around the outside of the room, this is where you wash and go about scrubbing yourself with your mitt. A couple of small rooms with one sink in each were off either side.

Massage:
The massage was done in a separate room to the hammam sinks and was administered on a foam covered plasticised bench. This made it a bit comfier than in other places but once the soapy water was being thrown over you, the bench became very slippery and you had to grip the sides to stop yourself sliding off!

The massage itself would best be described as short and fierce. Five minutes max with plenty of crunching and sudden vertebrae compressions.

Steam:
There was a tiny and intensely hot steam room at the back of the sink room. Opening the door you were greeted with a billow of scalding steam. Then in sitting down you could see the steam cloud accrue and edge lower and lower like a slowly collapsing ceiling. Standing up into the cloud to get out of the door stripped at least one layer of epidermis off the body!

Post hammam facilities:
On coming out of a hammam you always go through the same formality. The attendant brings a new towel and with a carefully timed whip replaces your damp peshtemel with a nice dry towel while retaining all modesty. You then get tucked up with a towel around the shoulders, a third which goes around your torso and finally you have your head wrapped about with a tea towel sized cotton sheet.

All of this is because the first thing you do after getting out of a hot bath is sweat profusely. The wrappings soak up all of this and when you have cooled down you are clean and fresh and ready to re-dress.

The Kurdish chap who was looking after us brought us hot and very sweet mint tea which helped pass the time wonderfully while we chatted about our experience.