Cotton castles and sarcophogi

After Ephesus we drove to Pamukkale and Hieropolis, another World Heritage Site.  We seek these out when we travel as they are usually phenomenal.

We drove through rich agricultural land, green on all sides, rich in fruit trees and fruit crops: strawberries, oranges, lemons, tomatoes: lots of hot houses everywhere.  The land looks so  green and fertile: everywhere we have been appears rich in foodstuffs.  Market stalls line the sides of most roads, as they appear to have trading down to a fine art, going back to the Silk Route times.   Mountains tipped with snow rose up the closer we moved inland.

We had expected this area to be dry.  It wasn't. 

Our campsite is at the foot of the World Heritage site of Parmukkale, a natural fault that oozes warm mineral water and creates astonishing calcite deposits, called travertines: a form of limestone that forms rich and amazing formations somewhat like the stalactites and stalagmites we find in underground caves all over the world.  

View from our campsite of the 'cotton castle' of Pamukkale

At Pamukkale there are terraces dripping like white liquified sugar candy, and petrified pools where the water is as blue as the blue blue sky contrasting with the blinding white of the ‘cotton castle’ as it is called that covers acres of the hillside that falls from the top.  

Extraordinary colours in the pools

In the morning we walked up over the travertine deposits to reach the top.   These days you have to go bare feet to prevent pollution and avoid damage, but it still seems wrong to walk on such an amazing piece of nature’s engineering.  The going was soft underfoot: powdery almost in the small pools.  Warm water ran under our feet constantly.  Amazingly, it was not slippery at all, yet it looked deadly.

Dripping, dripping 

One day I hope they have viewing platforms.  The travertines may be more protected, if so.  

Irresistible pools

At the top of the hill are the ruins of the city of Hieropolis built by the Kings of Pergamom. They built Hierapolis as a spa retreat, over two thousand years ago, and some three hundred kilometres, even then, from home.  So, they were prepared to travel far for their health and well-being.  

They chose the place for its hot mineral springs which, it was widely believed, contributed to good health. They built vast frigid and heated pools over the hill top for the throngs who came to visit.

Swimming with the artefacts

So many came, and stayed, that it became something like a retirement centre.  Consequently, many folk died here.

Sarcophogus tells the tale of dead lovers

The Necropolis on the hill  held over 1200 graves, many with elegant and expensive sarcophagi.

Simple and beautiful 

Beautiful artefacts abound for Hieropolis, despite its age.  Many in superb condition.  Some of the excavated funeral stele are amazing for their age.

The detail is almost as new

Rain, after lunch, cut short our visit to Hieropolis, but we headed home happy.

Another lovely day in Turkey.  

oooOOOooo