Pamukkale was one of my must sees for visiting Turkey. It is a spectacular travertine terrace and the name translates into 'cotton castle' from the turkish.
From a distance it really looks like an odd land slide
Up close it looks like snow. So much so that it plays tricks on your mind when you walk on it and its warm and hard
There wis a path going up the formation. I believe it is an old mining road. They have built pools for the tourists to play in. It is so much fun and such a relief after all the heat of the day.
They banned shoes, so the walk up the path was a little interesting for tender feet, but not bad since it is so smooth
Pretty views of the textures
Icicles?
Old diversions of the water for fancy hotel baths, or mining for the minerals really damaged the travertines. So modern management with tourism in mind is attempting to restore. They are basically rotating the water flow to rebuild damaged areas. This meant that the pictures I really wanted to get were not going to happen because most of the spectacular pools were dry as they sent water to fix something else.
But they still look cool
Hierapolis is a a second century BC town eventually incorporated into the roman empire. It is built on the top of the travertines.
Here are some tombs built a little too close
Theater up the hill
The sun was setting and the view amazing
Much of the stage building was reasonably restored in this theater
This triple arch is on the end of town and in th process of being put back together. Amazing how many big machines we need to redo what they did by hand.
Tombs
Colonnaded street
an ancient thoroughfare
I think these are temple ruins
this little street was cool. See how the road is sinking a bit?
Thats because the sewer system was loosing its support after 2000 years
Basilica
Back to the travertines as the sun set
Beautiful stuff isn't it?
Then we drove 3 hours back to our hotel. A random roadside stop and we had one of the best meals the whole trip. Exhausting but amazing day.
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