The star openings
Vaults pierced with eight-pointed stars admitting light.
Zedutchgandalf โ Public domain ยท Pedro J Pacheco โ CC BY-SA 3.0 es ยท Pedro J Pacheco โ CC BY-SA 3.0 es ยท Julia Kostecka โ CC BY 2.0
**The best-preserved Islamic bathhouse in Spain โ its vaults pierced by hundreds of star-shaped openings that let the light in** โ on the valley floor below the old town. Built in the late **13th or early 14th century** under Nasrid rule, โ **at the entrance to the city near the old bridge** โ **so that anyone entering washed first**. โ **Its plan is classical**: **three rooms in sequence** โ **cold, warm, hot** โ โ **the same Roman plan the Islamic bath inherited and developed**. โ **Its barrel vaults are pierced with eight-pointed star openings** โ **admitting shafts of light into the steam**; **and these are its famous images**. โ **Its heating and water system is still visible**: **a channel, a waterwheel, a furnace, and flues beneath the floor**.
Vaults pierced with eight-pointed stars admitting light.
A furnace and under-floor flues still visible.
The system that raised water from the river to the bath.
Calle Molino de Alarcon, 29400 Ronda, Malaga, Spain
**A complete system of water, heat and air โ the plan inherited from Rome and developed for a different purpose.** โ **The plan**: **three rooms in sequence** โ **the cold room** for undressing and resting, **the warm room**, the largest, where most time was spent, **and the hot room**, dense with steam near the furnace. โ **The passage between them is gradual** โ **deliberately, for health**. โ **The heating โ the hypocaust**: **a furnace outside the bath heated water and air**, โ **and the hot air was passed through **flues beneath a raised floor** on piers** โ **warming floor and walls from below**, **rather than by a fire in the room**; **a Roman system the Muslims inherited**. โ **The water**: **a wheel raised water from the river into a tank**, **and channels carried it to the rooms**. โ **Light and ventilation**: **the star openings in the vault** โ โ **not merely ornament**: **they admit enough light without side windows that would lose heat**, **and let excess steam escape**. โ **And the social function mattered more than cleanliness**: **the bath was a place to meet, talk and do business**, โ **with separate hours for men and women**; **and it was part of the city's fabric alongside the mosque and the market**.
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