I went last week to the city of Ronda, for the third time in as many years, and this time, at last, I was able to cram the remains of the Arabic baths into my schedule. 

These baths are the best kept from Muslim time in the whole of the Iberian penisula. Most of the other hammams have been shut down, destroyed and their stones and archways recycled into houses for example. Ronda's baths escaped that fate.

In Ronda, you can really apprehend the way the Arabic baths were conceived, first with the entrance (the roof has been lost a long time ago, but the arches give you an idea about the structure).

                                       

Then, you enter the cold room, the narrowest.

Then, comes the biggest room for the warm-ish waters - where people used to hang out, socialize, and get massage (and yeah, that's me!).

Then, there is the last room, and the most hot, because it is the closest from the furnace where wood was burned to provide the necessary heat.

                        

The most interesting part is also outside of the baths proper, where you can find a noria - a mill actioned by donkeys, used to extract the water for the hammam from the river nearby.

                         

                                           

NB: All photos mine, except the last one.

Next, I'll bring you the other beauties of Ronda.