Exploring Sultan Amir Ahmad Bathhouse

As in some other nations in West Asia or Middle East, bathhouses from the by-gone era are major tourist attractions in Iran as well, since they provide an intimate view of the ancient civilisations

- Sahana Kulur

The art of cleansing oneself with water, soap and bubbles is a ritual we perform every day, yet it never gets old. If you trace back the history of bathing, each civilisation had its own style, be it the Harappa-Mohenjo Daro, Egyptian or Mesopotamian civilisations. In many of these and more recent places, baththouses have tales of their own to tell.

As an architect, I enjoy designing bathrooms the most. Welldesigned bathrooms are a place of comfort. So naturally, I was drawn to bathhouses in the small town of Kashan in Iran's Isfahan Province, where people could bathe inside a kaleidoscope!

Fans of lavish architecture and intricate stuccoworks will definitely want to visit Kashan. This small Iranian city, about 250 km south of capital Tehran, is known as the "Mansion Town" thanks to its abundance of stunning traditional mansions, built by wealthy merchants and aristocrats during Kashan's heyday as a commercial along the Silk Road.

These homes, built in the 16th-18th centuries, were the ultimate status symbols, showcasing the owners' taste for luxury and serving as hotspots for cultural and social gatherings. Not only the homes and their guest rooms or bedrooms, but the merchants also paid great attention to the design and appeal of the bathhouses.

Those days, every self-respecting city in Persia had to have five key elements. A mosque, a bazaar, a house (or three), a bathhouse, and a cistern to keep things flowing. What good is a city without a proper place to wash away the grime and troubles of the day?