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Today most of
the world uses thick, thirsty Turkish
bath towels, but for most
of history the world dried off after
the bath
with plain old napless pieces of cloth.
It was in the 1600s that the Ottomans,
famed for their carpet-weaving,
brought fancy weaving to the common
towel. Technically, what they made
was a 2/2 twill weave with extra-warp
loop pile, which means their towels
had not just a warp and weft (like
any cloth) but also a pile:
loops of thread that stuck up from
the basic cloth.
The loops helped to catch and hold
the water, making drying after the
bath easier, faster and more pleasant.
By happy coincidence, Turkey is among
the world's foremost producers of cotton
and weavers of cotton cloth, including
Turkish toweling.
Drying off is a big deal in Turkey
not just because of all the Turkish
baths (hamam), but also
because of all the natural hot-water
spas such as those at Termal (near Yalova), Çekirge (in Bursa), Pamukkale,
and dozens of others.
My favorite use of Turkish toweling
is the thick, heavy, cozy bathrobes called bornoz. You
may have seen (and worn) cheap terrycloth
copies in luxury hotels that provide
bathrobes for their guests. The true
Turkish bornoz is far thicker
and heavier than terrycloth. It's really
a wonderful cotton after-bath
cocoon.
You can buy bornoz easily
in Turkey. The problem is that the
big, bulky robes take a lot
of space in your suitcase—in
fact, one robe would fill a normal
suitcase. You may need to buy a cheap
soft travel bag to ship home your bornoz.
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These ladies
emerging frrom the hamam are
wrapped in mere pestemal (napless
cloth). They need Turkish
towels!
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