Different types of bathhouses sprang up all over the globe before people had indoor plumbing. Some bathing spots use mostly water. Others make people sweat too.

Japan: Sentō

In a sentō, choose the section for men (marked with a blue Japanese symbol 男) or women (a red 女). Bring towels and soap. Leave your shoes and clothes behind, and then take a dip in different baths such as herbal or black spring water. Be courteous: This isn’t a pool. It’s a bath! Splashing or loud talking will bug other bathers.

Finland: Saunas

Clothes off, heat on. You and friends enter a little room heated to over 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Sweat for a while. When you’re good and hot, head outdoors. Roll in the snow or jump through a hole into an icy lake. Sound miserable? It’s not to Fins. Russians also use similar bathing spots called banya.

Mesoamerica: Temazcal

Enter a small “house of heat,” or temazcal. These historic bathing spots are made from rock, mud, or concrete. People sit in a circle around volcanic stones. Water poured over the hot stones fills the temazcal with steam. Sometimes the water is full of “healing” herbs. Exit the hot house to cool off with a shower.

Long ago, people went to temazcals to purify themselves before and after going to war. Some still believe such places can clean not only the outside of a person but the inside too.

Keeping clean can protect your body from sickness. But God doesn’t require us to have clean bodies before He accepts us. He gave the example of washing bodies and sprinkling tools in the Old Testament. But those signs pointed to something better to come. He has washed our sins away with the blood of His own Son. No water on Earth could do that, no matter how hard we scrub!