{"word_count": 1068, "character_count": 6331}
Bathing Culture in Baalbek in the Islamic Middle AgeNatascha MATHYSCHOKStudent, Johan Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main - ALLEMAGNEType de contribution : communication courteIntroductionBaalbek is located in modern Lebanon in the Beqaa-valley. The Roman town of Heliopolis is famous for its Roman temples. The German Archaeological Institute and the BTU Cottbus have an interdisciplinary research project ”Development of the city of Baalbek from the 4th millennium BC to modern times” there. It focuses on the entire time span of human activity in Baalbek. Because of the monumental Roman architecture, which remained visible throughout the centuries, the other periods were neglected.Within this project, the Islamic structures are studied in detail for the first time. Baalbek belonged to Damascus most of the time and could retain a certain importance until the Ottoman period. The scope is to determine the post-Roman development of the city and to gain a better understanding of the social and economic status of the town. Thus, the study of the known seven baths of the Islamic Middle Ages became an important item.I will present only two of the baths because those are the best preserved. The others have been removed by former archaeological investigations. Both of them show an architectural mixture of styles which cannot be found in this region elsewhere. One of them is located inside the city wall in the area of Bustan Nassif. The Bustan Nassif is located in the West of Baalbek next to the temple area and it is limited by modern walls and streets. It is a medieval quarter where archaeological and architectural research is currently undertaken.The bath in the Bustan el-Khan is located outside the known medieval city wall, at the very north-eastern end of the monumental Roman bath. It is built over a side room of the Roman portico to a certain extend. Besides the bath, there seem to have been other buildings around, but those are poorly preserved.Both of the baths date in the early Mamluk period. They have been excavated during the late 1960ties to the beginning of the 1970ties from the Directorate General of Antiquities. The relevant documentation was lost in the civil war. Only the ground plans and some photos survived. The ground plans were revised and completed in the years between 2001 and 2009.Medieval Baths at BaalbekBoth of the baths consist of the same three parts: The changing room, the bathing complex, and the heating and service-rooms. They have common characteristics and date to the same period.The Bath in the Bustan el Khan:The walls of the summer dressing room were encircled by benches. In the middle of the room, there is a well which might have served as a fountain. We cannot find the typical iwan architecture here. This room has one characteristic feature: In every corner of the central fountain is a column. There are no squinches present that might have carried a dome. In the eastern wall is an opening where stairs led up to the latrines , which where located at a higher level.Through a door in the north-eastern wall one can reach the bathing area. The winter dressing room consists of three small rooms. Two rooms were furnished with benches and the third one had a small fountain in the middle. There were also two washing niches in that room. The second dressing room had an access to a central octagonal hall with two side rooms. These were equipped with two washing niches.In the east of the octagonal room was the passing to the hot section. Again, this room had two side rooms. Unfortunately, the roof construction of the bathing area must remain unclear, but most likely there were little domes over every room. Behind this hot area was the heating and the service-area. The bath was fired by a smoke duct like the Damascene baths.The Bath in the Bustan NassifThe hammam is built into an ancient building and it is about two meters deeper than the houses around. Some of the building stones inside the bath are reused as spolia. The summer dressing room is nearly the same as the one in the Bustan el-Khan. One column is located at each corner of the fountain. Only the bases are preserved which look like a four leaf shamrock. As I said for the bath in the area of Bustan el-Khan, no indicators for an iwan architecture could be found here.The bathing area includes two dressing rooms for wintertime. One has stone benches and the other one has a little fountain and niches. To the north follows a rectangular central hall with one basin in every corner and two side rooms. North of the central hall is the hot section. Again, there are two side rooms. Further north were the heating and the service-area.ComparisonsBecause of the vicinity to Damascus one would expect the baths at Baalbek to have the same architectural design as the Damascene ones. Eventually, Baalbek even belonged to the territory of Damascus but the architecture of the summer dressing room has its closest parallels in North Africa.We know three baths in Nablus (Hammam al-Baydarah, Hammam al-Khalili, and Hammam al-Tamimi) where the roof is supported by a number of columns and crossvaults to carry the bays in the summer dressing room but those are the only ones known in Syria, so far. In general, the main dressing rooms were covered with a large central dome or by a cross-vault. We know examples from Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and Israel. Then, the dome or the cross-vault was supported by pendentives and squinches.On the one hand, the baths may have had a flat roof construction like the Mamluk baths in Cairo. On the other hand, the ground plan as well as the room layout corresponds well with the early baths of Damascus, which have no columns in the maslah.Regarding their dimensions, they belong to the smaller baths: One can compare them to the early Damascene baths of the 12th to 14th cen. Also the heating system shows the same characteristic smoke duct as the baths of Damascus. For example, the bath “Bouzeriye” has a similar heating system and room layout. As parallels by Écochard confirm, the baths in Baalbek must be dated to the 12th or 13th cen.To conclude, the design of the ground plan shares characteristics with the baths of Damascus whereas the roof construction can be compared to those of the baths at Nablus and in North Africa respectively.