Karakaya Baths
Illustration photo — not a verified picture of this exact spot.
- Location
- Ayaş, Ankara, Turquie, Turkey
- Water type
- thermal
- pH
- 7.3
Water profile
Rich in trace elements — gentle on the skin.
Soft water — natural, classic buoyancy.
The Karakaya Baths are a historic Ottoman hammam in Ayaş District of Ankara Province in north-central Anatolia, in a small town known for its traditional Ayaş wine and its position on the ancient road connecting Ankara (ancient Ancyra) to the Black Sea coast through the Bolu highlands. Ayaş was an important waypoint on the commercial and administrative routes of north-central Anatolia, and its hammam served the local farming and trading community with the essential bathing facility of Ottoman provincial life. The baths stand in a district whose mild wine-producing climate and agricultural heritage distinguish it from the harsher steppe landscape of the central Anatolian plateau, in a landscape that has been productive and inhabited since the Phrygian and Galatian periods of antiquity.