After a pretty crappy breakfast, we were ready to traipse across the street and up the short hill to the lower gate of the Pamukkale travertine pools.
The white appearance of the pools are caused by hundreds of years of hot spring water containing calcium carbonate flowing over the rocks and man made pools to hold the hot water. The calcium carbonate is deposited as it reaches the cooler surface temperatures and when it eventually hardens, it forms into travertine (a really nice stone for spa like bathroom tiles by the way!).
Especially as a Canadian, it feels a bit surreal to step onto the warm, dry, white travertine surface and not feel what you would expect to be icy cold snow.
Unfortunately, during the 1960's and beyond, hotels were built at the top of this mountain to take advantage of the hot springs. They built them right in the middle of the ruins of a city, Hieropolis, that was an ancient spa city where people came to vacation and also to die. The hotels destroyed much of the water system and a lot of the existing white travertine.
When the whole area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the hotels were destroyed, and restoration began. They've done a pretty good job.
Many of the tour groups and people not staying in Pamukkale start at the top, near the ruins, and explore the top section. Since we were walking from the bottom, the lower half was largely empty when we went up which was nice. It was amazing to imagine wealthy Romans from over two thousand years ago enjoying the hot water of this amazing natural wonder.
The water in the bottom pools was coolish - I don't think they have the volume of water available anymore to produce the cascading effect throughout the whole area that it once had. The pools down below weren't in the main flow of the hot water coming from the top - they probably just diverted that water periodically into the lower pools to make sure they were full.
Abby still has her by about an inch!
These pools in the middle at the top were the most picturesque, and thankfully off limits to people.
Just beautiful....
Icy cold right? Not!
One popular excursion in the area is paragliding - it looked like a ton of fun. They took off from the hill atop the Hieropolis and glided down the side of the travertines and down all the way to a farm below.
When we got to the top, after about forty five minutes of walking and chilling our way to the top, we put our shoes back on and set out to explore the ancient spa city. As you can see in the picture below, and as you can still see today, the travertines actually went all the way across the front of the city, whereas the area we walked and the only area that has water now is the small c-shaped white area on the middle right of the map. The ancient spa pools were everywhere and the dry, white travertine formations can still be seen from anywhere in the city.
We hiked up a dirt road and made our way to the ancient amphitheater - pretty spectacular and in great condition. I don't know what it is about these amphitheatres that evokes such an image in my head of what it must have been like to live there at that time - we could all feel it. Maybe it's because we're a family of movie buffs and we can relate to the theater? Whatever it is, it gabe me a chill down the spine.
We walked down the road, taking a small path as a detour to explore another area. After about twenty minutes of walking around and checking out more ruins, the three girls pulled a mutiny and declared they needed a drink, bathroom and fuel. Well ok, I was more than happy to explore on my own - I know when to dodge a Mack truck bearing down on me :-).
I walked away, down the natural slope of the city until I reached an area outside the city gate called the Necropolis, or the graveyard. Apparently, this is one of the best preserved ancient Necropolisis (is that pluralized version correct??). There are over 1,200 excavated sarcophagi and tombs and I found quite a few small and large details that struck me as interesting along the 2km or so ancient cobbled road of the Necropolis.
Most of this area was encased in limestone (from the continued flow of the hot spring water over hundreds of years after the city was abandoned. It must have been amazing when they discovered this area and brought their pneumatic air compressors to break open the outer layer of travertine to expose the ruins below.
Both sides of the road were lined with sarcophagi in all states of disrepair.
A lot of the tombs had ancient written languages inscribed on them, giving the archaeologists a lot of clues as to who was buried there. Apparently, the spa waters of Hieropolis were used for pleasure but also as a healing area for those that were very ill. Perhaps that is why they have so many beautiful coffins here, that probably indicated that a lot of the clients here were wealthy.
I walked under the main Roman gate, along the central road entering Hieroplis. It was in fantastic condition - when they discovered this section, it was encased in two meters of travertine, which tells you just how quickly the white mineral deposit could build up. The columns along both sides of the road were found, repaired and replaced in the their proper place, and they really framed the street to give me a picture of how it must habe felt to walk through the gates of the city that once had five hundred thousand residents.
After an hour or so, I reunited with the ladies, who seemed to have gotten a drink, snack and rest and were in a much better place :-). We took our shoes off, and started the walk down through the travertine pools. The place was much busier now and there was a plethora of selfie action going on, including some really small bathing suits on the wrong gender!
It was time for lunch and we were all pretty thirsty after all the walking and getting plenty of sun. The girls laughed as I got my "bottle" of Coke Zero. I recalled the story of how Papa used to ask for a "pint glass of Coke light" in Ireland, which meant they were to put two euro bottles of Diet Coke in a pint glass! I should have ordered a pint of Coke light......
Beth needed a nap, so the girls and I jumped into the car and drove back to Denizli in search of a movie. Unfortunately, even the new movies were oddly dubbed in Turkish (usually new movies are subtitled, not dubbed), so the movie was a bust, but I did get some sorely needed running shoes.
When we got back to town, we played cards until we worked up an appetite for dinner.
For some reason, we were all a little burned out on Turkish food. Perhaps it's just the poor fare on offer in Pamukkale, or the fact that there doesn't seem to be a ton of variety in the food here - we just needed a change. We walked down the little street that has a few restaurants, and lo and behold we found an Asian restaurant that hit the spot. The chef and owner was from Taiwan and she was quite friendly and helpful. I honed in on beef bibimbap, one of my favourite Korean dishes, and the rest of the family boringly followed suit! I almost feel ashamed to say it, but it was one of our favourite meals in Turkey so far - not number one, but up there. Sometimes, you just need a change, and tonight it worked out well!
looking at satellite view of Pamukkale on Google Earth, and you can really see how much the Travertine has recessed over the years, compared to the map in that picture you took.
ReplyDeleteYes, i'm even following along on Google Earth, so i know exactly where you've been.