LOS BAÑOS—THE BATHS.
The plan of these Baths is very similar to the arrangement still used throughout the East.
CHAMBER OF REPOSE.
From the elegant little saloon at the entrance where the bathers unrobed, and whither they resorted after the bath, we pass, by a circuitous passage, in which are two smaller baths, into the general vapour-bath, paved with white marble, and lighted with openings in the form of stars, lined with glazed earthenware. This corresponds with the apartment called by the Arabs the hararah, or vapour-bath, and described in Lane’s Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians; and it was under the graceful arcades which support the dome that the bathers
CHAMBER OF REPOSE.
underwent the attentions of the masseuses who waited on them. From the great hall we pass into a smaller one, having at each end a marble tank, used for solitary ablutions. Beyond, at the present day, an accumulated heap of ruins prevents the recognition of the means for heating the bath.
The upper part of the Chamber of Repose, which is supported on marble columns, forms a gallery with small divans, in which two persons, or, at most, four, could be accommodated at
CHAMBER OF REPOSE.
the same time; from which it would appear that the bath was confined entirely to the use of the sovereign and his hareem. The floor is paved with beautiful Mosaics, which are in perfect preservation.
Inscription: “What is most to be wondered at is the felicity which awaits men in this palace of delight.”
Los Baños are well preserved, for they lie out of the way of ordinary ill-usage. The vapour-bath is lighted from above by small lumbreras, or “louvres.”