Pazarbaşı Baths

The Pazarbaşı Baths (Market-Head Baths) are a historic Ottoman hammam in Burhaniye District of Balıkesir Province on the northern Aegean coast of Turkey, in a small coastal town on the Gulf of Edremit known for its olive orchards and proximity to the ancient Carian and Mysian archaeological sites of the Edremit region. The name Pazarbaşı (head of the market or market square) identifies the hammam's location at the most prominent and commercially active point of the local weekly market, following the Ottoman convention of positioning public baths at the intersection of commercial and civic life. The baths served the farming, fishing, and trading community of Burhaniye, a town whose mild Aegean climate, productive olive groves, and scenic gulf coastline have made it a prosperous corner of the northwestern Anatolian coast since antiquity.