Washing, which signifies spiritual and symbolic purification, is also very important in Islam in addition to material and physical cleaning. The hammam stands out with this significance as construction where the cleaning and washing take place. A high number of hammams were constructed in Anatolia with the Seljuks’ settlement. While some small private hammams were constructed aside from the hammams in bazaars which provided income for foundations, there were also some small and privately owned hammams in mansions and waterfront houses in the big cities and ayan mansions in Anatolia, which were separate from the main building. Bathing cubicles or bathroom cabinets were planned within the house for a similar purpose. With the allocation of each room to one family in the house, the ablution ritual was meant to be performed within the privacy of the room. For this reason, the lower part of the closet, which we encounter in every room and sometimes even in the kitchen, was arranged suitably for washing. 

A bath chamber adjacent to the kitchen space was encountered in the restoration works carried out in 2020 in the Manol House which is located in the Söke District of Aydın. While the connection of the bath with the kitchen points to an application that we start to witness together with the examples of the ancient period, detailed information about water and heating system can also be reached. While there are traces of the usage of boiler and tap in the water system, we come across a fire chamber, a hotspot, and a chimney in the heating system.

Located in Aydın Province, Söke District, Kemalpaşa Neighborhood, Island 333, Plot 11, Manol House consists of two floors on the ground floor. Along with an outbuilding planned independently of the building, the garden entrance and the main entrance of the house are located on Alay Street. The house and the outbuilding adjacent to it in the south are covered with Turkish-style tiles.

Manol House consists of two floors above the basement. The main building and the annexe are covered with Turkish-style roof tile. There are two units in the basement of the housing. The ground floor and first floor are in a different types of floor plans. While the side anteroom and three rooms connected to the side anteroom are placed on the lower floor, the middle anteroom and five rooms are viewed on the upper floor. There is an annexe that is joined to the house in the southwest of the house. The annexe with two-unit which is composed of a kitchen and a Turkish bathroom room that is next to the kitchen is one storey.

The restoration work has been started at Manol House by Söke Municipality in 2010 and the House has been planned to be converted into a Guest House. During the restoration works, the Turkish bathroom room which presents ideas regarding the installation and heating system, and consists of a single unit, has been encountered. 

The house has a garden in the southern part and an outbuilding located in the southwest. The passage between the house and the outbuilding is enabled by a hallway on the ground floor of the house. The cement tile floor covering continues in the passage area as in the house’s corridor.

When the hammam examples in the house or the outbuilding section, for which there is limited information in the sources, are examined, the connection between the hammam and the kitchen space shows similar characteristics. The hammam section was evaluated together with such units as the kitchen and cellar on the ground floor. The hammam was also considered together with the resting or the preparation unit in front of it, and the arrangements consisting of two spaces similar to the examples from the 20th-century Aydın and the 19th-century Tokat attracted attention. Although it was thought that the unit providing access to the hammam in the Manol House was organized together with it, there was no definite information.

Despite the insufficient information about the heating system in the hammams of private houses, an evaluation was possible with the removal of the floor in the example of Manol House. In the hammam, the reflection of the hypocaust section of the Roman and Turkish hammam architecture on a small area was observed. Similar arrangements, in which the furnace section and the heating principle of the water in the tank of Turkish hammam were repeated with a basic model, were also available in hammam spaces in Aydın, Erzurum and Çorum.

Although the fire chamber and boiler, the faucet that enables the hot water flow, the chimney, and the carriers of the heating system were found in the Manol House example, there was no trace of such sections as berm, basin, or lampstand which are normally expected to be in the hammam space. It was considered probable that these marks disappeared in later interventions. However, when the limited examples in Anatolia were examined, it was thought that the bench and lamp elements were to be found on the facade connected with the kitchen where the cauldron was located.

Local examples and general characteristics can be ascertained if more hammam examples designed for private use in Söke District and other regions are accessed. However, the potential for these places being changed is extremely high in these currently inhabited historical buildings due to their continuous use and various additional requirements and technologies. Later requirements can lead to the end of old practices, and in some cases, it becomes necessary in terms of ensuring the continuity of life. This problem is particularly noticeable in hammams and other bathing places which include such important technologies as plumbing and heating systems. Although there are possibly many cases that could not resist the developing and convenient technologies and disappeared or underwent changes, the restoration activities to be conducted over time show their importance with the discovery of various information as in the example of Manol House.