NATURAL ALEPPO SOAPS

Everything you touch in Ancient Levantine country and in Anatolia has a story. MACHRIQUE soaps, indispensable natural product of beauty and cleaning, have been done for thousands of years even in the houses of Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Isn’t it unfair not to tell about the precious products the oils are extracted from to produce the soaps, while talking about the soaps?  

Olive tree is sacred. Nobody can say anything to the contrary. It is one of the three trees that reflect Adam’s - the first human being - wish for immortality and eternity. Its name is reminiscent of life and of beloved for everything. The homeland of the olive tree is the country of Levantine from which it has spread to Anatolia and Mediterranean. 

The story of Daphne tree is at the same time Apollo’s love story. The maiden Daphne was a beautiful girl who dedicated herself to the river god and whose body smelled nice. What swept Apollo off his feet was Daphne’s admirable scent. Daphne didn’t surrender to Apollo’s temptations and turned into a tree which smells nice like her. 

In the geography of Levantine and Anatolia, jasmine flower is very popular and its name is given to girls. When the Mesopotamia warmth and the fabulous scent of jasmine come together, the travel to the dreamland starts. 

The poets in Anatolia and Mesopotamia have written thousands of poems about rose and nightingale. The rose is a beloved flower the nightingale can not do without.   

Orange and Mediterranean are two concomitant words. Both of them give happiness and comfort. The stupendous scent of orange grove in flowering time makes the humanity set out on mystic journeys of dreams.  

The use of clay for the purposes of cleaning and cosmetics is a very old tradition. It is said that Cleopatra had grown more attractive thanks to the clayey waters of Anatolia.   

As indispensable products of the HAMMAM which was consummated by Roman and Ottoman civilizations as well as by the deep historicity of the area, soaps are composed of these meaningful products.   

The basic material of the MACHRIQUE soaps made traditionally by boiling in cauldrons is olive oil.  MACHRIQUE soap is impossible without it. Cleaning is a necessity; but isn’t it necessary to smell nice besides cleaning? For which day are we going to keep the oil of the beloved fruits of daphne tree? Added to soaps at certain proportions, it bestows its scent that provoked Apollo on the people using it. 

It is said that in ancient Anatolia, the woman symbolizes the fertility, which is definitely true. After Kybele, the goddesses Artemis and Diana symbolized the fertility and the abundance. Those women, symbol of fertility, who have been producing soaps and olive oil for thousands of years at Anatolian and Mesopotamian houses, added the aromatic oils of the region to their soaps. Therefore, adding lavender, rose and orange oils to the soaps and making soaps in different shapes have become a tradition. So, MACHRIQUE soaps are traditional. 

Your rendezvous is about to start with hand-made kesse and washcloths, as well as with olive-oiled soaps with laurel and rose essences coming from a thousand-year old past. 

HAMMAM: the world of meditation that is automatically created under the bright dome