"This article starts in a Turkish bath, a “hamam”, and the “hamam” starts with a Roman bath a millennium earlier. While this must seem an odd place to start, Kabul at 5,900 feet altitude has snow on the ground all winter. Mazar e Sharif at 1290 feet does not but stays about freezing, and Peshawar Pakistan (80% flooded) at about 1200 feet averages 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter."