Hammam of Sultan Inal

Sultan al-Ashraf Inal commissioned this public bathhouse in 1456 CE during the Mamluk period. Like other Islamic hammams, the building was carefully arranged as a sequence of spaces with gradually changing temperatures. A bent entrance corridor protected privacy and led into a cool changing room where visitors left their clothes and belongings. From there they moved into a warmer resting space before entering the heated bathing chamber. Small glass-filled openings in the domes helped illuminate and ventilate the rooms while retaining heat. Water was drawn from a well using a waterwheel, heated in a furnace and distributed through pottery pipes and metal outlets. The hammam therefore preserves both a social institution and a sophisticated example of medieval environmental and hydraulic design.