Pamukkale and Hierapolis - Cotton Castle and the Roman spa city

{ November 2009 - Pamukkale & Hierapolis, Turkey }

We left our hotel in Kusadasi early in the morning with quite heavy rain, while the bus made its way to a town called Pamukkale which meant cotton castle. The town was about 3 hours away, and we hoped that the rain would stop before we got there. Our tour guide was a retired English teacher, who mothered us pretty well!

When we reached Pamukkale, we could see huge patch of whites on the hills. It was definitely an interesting sight. The old Roman city of Hierapolis was built on top of the hill, around the travertine. The amazing site was created as the water, full with calcium carbonate, flowed down the cliff and the calcium was deposited around the cliff making it white. The purported health benefits of the travertine made the Romans build a spa city there. The ancient town, Hierapolis, is a UNESCO's World Heritage Site.




And of course, a Roman city isn’t complete until you built a theatre!


We were allowed to walk across a section of the travertine. It was drizzling then, and as we were also rushed for time, we could not spend much time there. After taking some photographs, we ran back to our bus, 15 minutes later than the agreed time, to an unhappy bus driver who kept mumbling that he was not going to drive fast just because we were late. Luckily, we managed to catch the local bus to Denizli, and then caught another bus all the way to Antalya. In the midst of the rush, I lost my cap. My only wish is that someone picked it up and that it is now in the good hands of a young Turkish lady who will make good use of it.

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