Claude would go on to show Alexander and his company that for Cairians, bathhouses were far more than simple utilitarian establishnts.
It was a way of life, covering all aspects of it.
"My lord, this way," Thus the large man first gestured towards a large pair of oak doors placed in the corridors, introducing, "This is the gymnasium."
Entering through the gate, Alexander found the interior to be much bigger than it appeared from the outside.
It was nearly the size of a whole football field, with bright natural lighting illuminating every speck of it courtesy of the massive holes in the roof.
Beneath, the stone tiled floors were painted bright red, and being tread upon by a bustling crowd of both n and won of all ages.
"Ahhhh! Ancestors!" And it was the state of the people they were in that caused Lady Parthia to suddenly let out a gasp of utter incredulity.
Because the people here were all semi, if not completely bare!
The n at most wore a kind of linen wrapping around their privates, while the won had a type of makeshift bikini made of similar linen wraps.
Although this perhaps revealed more than it hid, showing off just enough to get one's imagination tingling. It made anyone anticipate to know what magic lay underneath that flimsy cloth.
Many however chose to not even have that, completely forgoing everything and letting it all 'hang'.
So the n and boys freely let their 'little brother' dance around as they walked, while the won and girls unabashedly allowed both their upper and lower magnificent curves to jiggle and spill out without a care in the world!
For the very conservative Tibian queen, this went past being just too shaful to look at and reached the point of mortifying.
She wanted to instantly cover her eyes and run out.
Even Lady Nanazin who was next to her felt her horizons being broadened seeing this.
And this was despite her being far more experienced than most in seeing large groups of people without clothes. The wild and 'mature' parties held in the capital palace were rarely this large and even the bathing ceremony during the annual pilgrimage- Jtaama would be more reserved.
The only person who did not seem at all bothered by this was Claude, who nonchalantly continued comnting on what was going on here,
"This is the gymnasium. This is where people first usually enter after paying the fee. They take their clothes and place them in one of those lockers there."
As Claude said this, he pointed towards the lower half of the walls, which were fitted on all sides with very large wooden cabinets that were divided into many small boxes.
From there, Alexander and his group could see both n and won getting undressed right in front of each other and then simply storing their belongings in one of those boxes.
It was very similar to how bags and other belongings were stored in many modern day shopping malls or parks, only here there were no tokens or locks on the boxes.
People simply left their things unattended, mostly trusting one another to be honest.
And as if sensing Alexander's thoughts on this matter, Claude suddenly flattering chuckled, "These lockers are very safe my lord. Stealing is severely punished and so the order in the city is very good. Hehe, it is all thanks to Lady Miranda. So at most, we have patrons mistaking each other belongings."
"But if one still has reservations, he can pay one of the attendants a tip to look after it. Or if the patron is wealthy enough, they will usually have their personal servants carry the clothes with them while they change into sothing so appreciate. Look there, there are so noble kids doing this."
Claude pointed toward a boy and girl, mostly likely brothers and sisters, wearing half sleeves tunic and shorts.
"Either way, after taking off their outer garnts, the people will move to oil themselves in those benches. We sell the oil here, but most prefer to bring their own!"
The portly man swiftly shifted his stubby finger towards the many benches that were laid out in series along the periter of the gymnasium and Alexander could not help but marvel at the beautiful scenery that blood in front of him.
Be it the man rubbing the oil on his woman, vice versa or sotis the sa gender, mostly servants, Alexander still appreciated the sight.
First there were the lockers, where a whole host of beautiful won bending over and stripping out of everything without any care for the stares being sent towards them.
And now another group giggling and oiling each other up while sitting or laying on the benches, in bare or half bare states, touching in all kinds of places and giving the toned bodies a very alluring, healthy shine.
When Claude told him that the bathhouse was already packed with people, Alexander was at first a bit peeved because he wanted to see the entire thing without any distractions.
This would have let him take his ti observing all the nitty gritty details and thus better copy it back ho.
But at the last minute, Lady Nanazin insisted that Lady Parthia should accompany them causing them to be a bit late.
This had predictably made him a bit annoyed, but now… well he was very glad at what had happened.
The pink scenery that was enough to make his throat perched was certainly worth the slight inconvenience.
As for the n and won who were oiling themselves, they hardly seed to care.
Nobody other than the newly arrived Alexander's entourage gave them a second glance, letting the pasha understand this was sothing common for them.
It seed that despite Caira being quite a conservative society, the bathhouse was one place where the people did not mind the state they were in.
Husbands and wives, parents and children, cousins and uncles, all naturally bared themselves in front of each other without any worry.
And Alexander guessed the reason for this discrepancy was probably due to the inadequacy of plumbing in their day to day life.
He knew that despite Caira's very impressive underground water system that was perhaps even better than what he had at Zanzan, still more than ninety percent of the hos in the city had no indoor plumbing.
So for these poor folks, the water taken from the nearby river by the water system was only available through wells located all around the city.
The difficulty of collecting and transporting water ant that cleaning and bathing were usually done in the open, in less than private places that were more designed for maximizing the efficiency of the limited resources, leading to most people developing a kind of nonchalant attitude to such things.
As for those who did have a large amount of sha over showing skin, well they were usually wealthy enough to be able to afford so.
They had large private, single bathrooms, and enough servants doing all the heavy lifting that ca before and after doing such things.
And indeed, as Alexander's eyes road around the crowd, he spotted a couple of such people.
n and won much more modestly dressed, their clothes and temperant pretty much instantly giving away their identity.
And the rest of the people too sensed this, thus usually giving them a wide berth.
As for what these noblen and won along with many of the commoners were doing here- well they were exercising!
Many, mostly n and young boys, were seen lifting various light wights that were made of stone, wood, or even iron- no prize for guessing where that ca from.
While others were going freestyle- doing squatting, bench presses, sit-ups, and even chin ups on the nearby bars to na a few.
As for the won, many were lightly jogging, letting the jiggle physics take fully over, while so of the most adventurous bunch were playing catch with what looked like an Arcian football.
It was made of perhaps wood or cloth, wrapped up in leather, and was being thrown in a circle while being around accompanied by peals of giggles.
Alexander was surprised by how free the won were being and thought he was watching beach volleyball as it existed two thousand years in the future- sexy and a great eye candy.
And others seed to too agree, as the gas seed to have gathered quite the crowd, consisting of both n and won, all of whom were cheering for their favorite player.
This made even Alexander wonder if he should introduce this sport to Zanzan.
Anyway, seeing the people moving around like this, he finally understood why the room was called a gymnasium.
As it was then also pronounced by Claude,
"After oiling, most of us like to work up a little sweat! As my lord sure knows, sweating is the body's way to squeezing out disease and illness! Like how you squeeze the bitterness of fruits!"
Yes, this was also one of the dical misconceptions of the ti.
Sweating a lot was genuinely thought to be a way to cure diseases and even a well known prescribed thod.
Alexander did not know exactly how this idiotic idea ca about, but it did, which was also the reason why the bathhouses all had a gymnasium. Continue your adventure with empire
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