Travel To The 8 Best Hammams in Marrakech

Moroccans visit the hammam not just to clean themselves, but to clear their minds, reconnect with loved ones and purify themselves before the important Friday prayers. The prophet Mohammed recommended the hammam for health, longevity and fertility, and it remains central to religious and cultural life in Morocco.

Hammams can be both private and public, although in the past only the wealthiest families could afford one at home. Along with the communal bakery, fountain, madrasa (religious school) and mosque, the public hammam is one of five traditional elements found in every neighbourhood of the Marrakech medina. Closely associated with the mandatory ablutions required before Muslim prayers, you’ll usually find them situated next to a mosque.

The ruins of the oldest Islamic hammam in Morocco can be found in Volubilis and date back to the 8th century, when the Arabs arrived. They are modelled on their Roman predecessors and most still consist of a similar three-room structure. There’s a hot room where bathers start by stimulating blood flow and opening up their pores; a warm room for scrubbing and masque treatments; and a cold room for relaxation and rehydration at the end.

There are no bathing pools in an Islamic hammam, as Muslims consider still water to be unclean. Instead, rooms are usually lined with taps where running water can be drawn (hence the need to bring a bucket or bowl to the public hammam). As a result, Moroccan hammams are hot and humid, rather than steamy. They are also bathed in a soft half-light that filters through small, glass windows in the domed roof.

Traditionally, the heat for the hammam was provided by the farnatchi, the man in charge of tending the fire beneath the bathhouse that heats its floors and walls. Women visit the farnatchi on their way to the hammam to deposit dishes to be cooked, such as the tangia (a traditional stew concocted in an amphora), which is then placed in the hammam fire to cook for hours.

All Moroccans, regardless of social class, visit the hammam once a week. The busiest days are Thursdays and Fridays, before Friday prayers. Attending the hammam is always a social activity for Moroccans, who go in family groups and spend at least two to three hours there. Typical of Islamic society, genders are segregated in different areas or scheduled separately.

In the past, when the hammam was one of the only places women were allowed to visit, this weekly ritual constituted a great moment of well-being and escape. Mothers might seek out future wives for their sons at the hammam, and even today it is the location of important rituals, such as the pre-wedding or post-pregnancy bath. Even the act of performing the scrub for one another is considered an expression of habibi (love).

Whether you check into a public hammam or the luxury Royal Mansour, the bathing ritual is the same. After a quick rinse, bathers head to the hottest room, where either you or an attendant will slather your skin with slippery savon noir (also called savon beldi), a black soap made with the oil and macerated pulp of black olives. This paste softens the skin and prepares it for exfoliation.

After relaxing in the hot room, bathers move to the warm room to rinse off the black soap and perform the exfoliating scrub. In public hammams, friends and family scrub each other, but if you are alone you can pay a bath attendant (tebbaya) for the service. For many people this can be an intimidating experience, given that everyone is naked except for their underwear, and the scrub covers every inch of your body, including breasts, under arms and inner thighs. It is performed with a kess (rough-textured glove) and is firm, even painful for some, as the aim is to remove dead skin. If the pressure is too much, say bshwiya (slower).

Many layers of dead skin later, you’re finally ready for a hydrating rhassoul masque. Rhassoul is a saponiferous clay found in the Middle Atlas, which is usually mixed with a range of aromatic plants (rose petals, cloves, eucalyptus, lichens and chamomile, for example). It is made into a liquid paste with water and applied to your body and hair. Rhassoul is rich in mineral salts and draws toxins to the surface of the skin, tightening pores and regulating the secretion of sebum. Once it is rinsed off, it is followed by an orange-flower water or lemon juice skin tonic.

It’s time to take your new baby-soft skin to the cold room, where you relax and rehydrate with some tea or water. In some hammams you can get a massage here, too. A typical one involves a thick coat of emollient argan oil, another unique Moroccan product rich in essential fatty acids that protect the skin from dehydration and sun damage.

At any community hammam, you’ll need your own bowl or bucket for scooping water, a plastic mat to sit on, savon noir (black soap), a scrubbing glove, flip-flops, a towel, your regular toiletries (shampoo, razor and so on) and a change of undies – you’ll be expected to wear yours during the treatment, so they’ll get wet.

Entry costs around 30–40 Moroccan dirhams (£2-3) or 60 dirhams (£4.50) if you want a scrub (let them know at reception when you enter).

This is an updated version of an article created by Mandy Sinclair.