Egyptian lady of the Turkish Harem, smoking a Hookah Pipe and reclining on a armchair. The true historical nature of the Turkish/Eastern/Ottoman Harem was the housing of the women (and attendant eunuchs), of the Imperial or noble household, in a usually polygamous household. These quarters were enclosed and forbidden to men. The institution of the harem exerted a certain fascination on the European imagination, especially during the Age of Romanticism/Orientalism due in part to the writings of the adventurer Richard Francis Burton. Many Westerners imagined a harem as a brothel consisting of many sensual young women lying around pools with oiled bodies, with the sole purpose of pleasing the powerful man to whom they had given themselves. Much of this is recorded in art from that period, usually portraying groups of attractive women lounging nude by spas and pools. The purpose of Harems during the Ottoman Empire, was for the royal upbringing of the future wives of noble and royal men. These women would be educated so that they were ready to appear in public as a royal wife.