Steam baths of Ronda in the San Miguel neighborhood

Located in the San Miguel neighborhood, the Arab Baths of Ronda (also known as the Baños árabes de San Miguel) represent a Muslim adaptation of ancient Roman baths. While the Romans used large pools for immersion, the Muslim version was fundamentally a steam bath, though it occasionally featured a small pool. This neighborhood served as an Islamic suburb for crafts and agriculture, including potteries and tanneries, with the baths serving as a social focus and a religious ritual space. They even functioned as an anteroom for travelers visiting the city, similar to how a large mosque might serve the public.

The bath's location is significant because it was situated near a water source, which was necessary since the city itself lacked water. The structure was designed to handle a large volume of water, making it one of the most important baths in the Islamic city. It was organized around two vital pillars: the capture and distribution of water. To facilitate this, a waterwheel (noria) was built near the confluence of the Arroyo de las Culebras and the Guadalevín river.

From the waterwheel, water was conducted through a small aqueduct to the first room of the bath, the leñera. This room contained the caldera and a small tank (aljibe) for storing the liquid before distribution to the cold room on the opposite side. Because these were steam baths, the water was not primarily heated; instead, only a small portion was heated in the caldera while air was warmed through underground channels (hipocausto) to heat the hot and temperate rooms. Vapor was produced by pouring buckets of water onto the hot floors of these rooms, with a small basin near the aljibe used to fill the containers.

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