Salihler Ilıcası

Salihler Ilıcası is a Turkish thermal spring bath — 'Ilıcası' meaning warm spring or hot spring bath — in the Salihler district, where naturally heated mineral waters from local geothermal sources sustain the thermal bathing tradition that blends the Ottoman hammam culture of communal bathing with the specifically Turkish tradition of kaplıca (natural hot spring bathing) in which volcanic or tectonically heated mineral waters are enjoyed within a long thermal tradition. Turkey's distinction between the hammam (artificial steam bath heated by wood or coal) and the kaplıca (natural thermal spring bath) represents two complementary traditions in Turkish bathing culture, both cherished for the well-being they offer but drawing on different natural resources — the hammam on the skill of the tellak and the technology of heated chambers, the kaplıca on the earth's natural geothermal energy. Salihler Ilıcası, in the kaplıca tradition, provides naturally heated mineral waters whose geological origin in the thermally active zones of Anatolia gives them a mineral richness and authenticity that artificial steam baths cannot replicate.