1990s Turkey Turkish Bath Hamam Interior Foam Massage Tourist Colour Postcard

Title
1990s Turkey Turkish Bath Hamam Interior Foam Massage Tourist Colour Postcard

Front
Colour photographic interior view of a Turkish bath, or hamam, showing tourists being washed and massaged on the heated marble platform.

The room is built of pale grey and white marble and rendered masonry, with a vaulted ceiling springing from a heavy corner pier at the centre rear and plain washed walls. Brass shower fittings and exposed pipework are fixed to the wall at the right, and a small blue and white notice board is mounted on the pier at the centre.

In the foreground, on the broad raised marble slab of the göbek taşı, several bathers lie stretched out and covered in white soap foam. At the lower centre a young man in striped swimming trunks lies on his back with his eyes closed while an attendant in a red and yellow striped peştemal works on his leg at the right. Beyond him a young woman in a pink bikini lies face down as a moustached attendant in a striped wrap soaps her back with a gloved hand. At the far left a further bather in a pink and white costume lies in a mass of foam being scrubbed by another attendant.

Behind, a group of bathers stand and sit about the room: a young woman in a striped bikini kneels at the right smiling toward the camera, a woman in a striped towel wrap stands at the centre beside a young man in a checked wrap, another woman in a black top stands at the left, and further figures are seated at the right rear.

Printed in spaced dark capitals across the white lower border: “T U R K I S H B A T H”

Back
Divided-back colour postcard, printed text in black on white.

Four ruled address lines are printed in the right-hand half, with a ruled stamp box at the upper right.

Printed across the foot, with a small camera device at the centre:
“KAYALAR
PTT Üst Sokağı No.3 AYDIN Tel: 0-256-225 61 43
FOTO: SEMİH KAYALAR • HER HAKKI MAHFUZDUR”

No stamp, postmark or handwriting is present; the card is unused.

Character and Text Summary
The notice visible on the wall in the photograph reads:
SAUNA
AÇIK YIKANMAYIN
YÜKSEK SESLE KONUŞMAYIN
SİGARA İÇMEK YASAKTIR
— “Sauna. Do not wash uncovered. Do not speak loudly. Smoking is forbidden.”

KAYALAR — the surname of the publisher and photographer, Semih Kayalar.

PTT Üst Sokağı No. 3, AYDIN — the publisher’s address in the town of Aydın in western Turkey, the street named for its position above the post office.

HER HAKKI MAHFUZDUR — all rights reserved.

FOTO: SEMİH KAYALAR — photograph by Semih Kayalar.

Estimated Era
Circa 1995 to 2005. The printed telephone number carries the area code 0-256 for Aydın province in the seven-digit format introduced across Turkey in the national renumbering of 1994 and 1995, giving a firm earliest date. The swimwear and hairstyles of the bathers are of the late 1980s and 1990s, and the card belongs to the boom in package tourism along the Turkish Aegean coast around Kuşadası and Selçuk, where hamam visits were a standard excursion. The card is unposted, so no postmark confirms a year of use.

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