Hammam Nur al-Din, Syria

12th century Syrian bathhouse

CyArk

CyArk

Hammam Nur al-Din in Damascus (2017) by CyArkCyArk

Expedition Overview

The Hammam Nur al-Din was documented as part of Project Anqa, a collaboration between the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), CyArk, and Carleton University and was funded by the UK based charity the Arcadia Foundation. The project began in 2015 in response to the catastrophic loss of heritage in the Middle East and aimed to protect monuments by providing training on digital preservation techniques for local heritage professionals in the region. CyArk provided training and workshops in Lebanon to Syrian heritage professionals in 2016 and 2017 in partnership with the UNESCO Office for the Preservation of Syrian Cultural Heritage. The Syrian team documented six sites in Damascus and the data was sent back to CyArk for further processing.   

Washing chamber in the hammamCyArk

Introducing Hammam Nur al-Din

Believed to date to sometime around 1160, the Hammam Nur al-Din is one of the oldest bathhouses in Damascus and is so well preserved it is still in use today. Hammams, or bathhouses, were places for everyone to enjoy ritual cleansing and socializing. The structures’ location among the shops of a marketplace show what an integral part hammams played in the daily life in old Damascus. Entering the hammam, visitors are first greeted with the ornately decorated mashlah, a large domed chamber meant for changing and lounging, before proceeding to a series of chambers. The cold water chambers are called barrani,  warm-water chambers, wustani, and the hot-water chambers are known as juwwani, where bathers would sweat in the steam entering from a side vent linked to the furnace.

Hammam Nur al-Din (2017) by CyArkCyArk

Light filtering through the colored glass in the Hammam Nur al-Din in Damascus.

Dome in the Hammam Nur al-Din (2017) by CyArkCyArk

A Grand Experience

Hammam Nur al-Din has an unusually lofty mashlah. Dating from the Ottoman period, this large domed chamber contains six symmetrically placed iwans, a vaulted space set back from the wall, where cushioned stone benches invite the bathers to relax. Niches beneath the benches, or mastabas, create a space for bathers to leave their shoes while they change into the traditional wooden bathhouse sandals. An octagonal stone pool sits in the center of the mashlah and other furniture and decorations add character to the space, often changed with the fashion of the time.

Traditional wooden sandals worn for the bathsCyArk

Open Heritage 3D by CyArkCyArk

Data from this project is now freely available through Open Heritage 3D.

Download the data from this project.


About Open Heritage 3D



The mission of the Open Heritage 3D project is to:

● Provide open access to 3D cultural heritage datasets for education, research and other
non-commercial uses.

● Minimize the technical, financial and legal barriers for publishers of 3D heritage data.

● Promote discovery and re-use of datasets through standardized metadata and data formats.

● Foster community collaboration and knowledge sharing in the 3D cultural heritage community.

● Share best practices and methodologies for the capture, processing and storage of 3D cultural heritage data

Credits: Story

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This project was made possible through the generous support of Arcadia Fund and the following partners:


DGAM Syria

ICOMOS

Carleton University

UNESCO Office for Safeguarding Syrian Cultural Heritage

Yale University

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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