Pamukkale

A three and half hour bus ride from Selcuk, known for Ephesus, took us to the small but bustling city of Pamukkale. Famous for the ancient Roman city of Hierapolis and the unusual white rock formations called travertines. 

Travertine: a mineral consisting of a massive usually layered calcium carbonate (as aragonite or calcite) formed by deposition from spring waters or especially from hot springs – From Websters

The travertines look really cold, they’re not. The water is actually quite warm, it starts at 36˚ Celsius at the top and trickles down getting a little cooler as it goes.  The travertines look really slippery, they’re not. The stone is quite porous, park regulations only permit you to walk on the white portion with your bare feet and even the steeper parts can be walked right up (bare feet only) without falling. We spent a really cool three hours exploring the travertines at Pamukkale.

Open 24 hours a day,20Turkish Lira ($12 USD) gets you into the park which also includes the ancient Roman city of Hierapolis. Romans believed the thermal area had special healing powers and used the pools for a long time to improve their health. You can even take a dip in the ancient thermal pools at an additional cost of 25 Turkish Lira ($14 USD) a person. We didn’t have much time at the park so we skipped out on the  healing pool and focused our attention on exploring/photographing the travertine pools. Check out some of our photos below with the remainder here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/PamukkaleTurkey?authuser=0&feat=directlink

If travelling through Turkey we’d highly recommend making a pit stop for a day or two in Pamukkale. If there for two days then consider the paragliding, it looked amazing. We only wish we had more time to paraglide.

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave