Baths of Piri Paşa (Yumurtalık)

The Baths of Piri Paşa are a historic Ottoman hammam in Yumurtalık District of Adana Province on Turkey's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the ancient Aegeae (modern Yumurtalık) on the shores of the Gulf of İskenderun. Piri Paşa, the Ottoman official after whom the bath is named, served as governor of the region during the 16th century when Yumurtalık (Aegeae) was an important port serving the Çukurova (Cilician) plain, and his patronage of the local hammam reflects the Ottoman tradition of governors investing in the civic infrastructure of their territories. The baths served the maritime and agricultural community of this eastern Mediterranean coastal town, in a district where the fertile Cilician plain descends to a coast that has been strategically important since the Phoenician, Greek, and Roman periods of maritime commerce.