A hammam is a steam bath associated with the Islamic world, often called a Turkish bath by Westerners. Its design descends from Roman thermae, and archaeological remains show bathhouses in the Islamic world from the Umayyad period in the 7th and 8th centuries. Bathers pass through an undressing room, a cold room, a warm room and a hot room, heated by furnaces whose smoke and hot air ran through conduits under the floor. Attendants then scrub bathers with soap, and bathers rinse under running water, because Islamic practice requires running rather than standing water. Hammams served ritual washing, hygiene before private plumbing, and gendered social meeting places.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.