Pamukkale

A group of Pamukkales limestone travetines.
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We arrived in Denizli mid afternoon, the town was much larger than we had envisioned. We were a little frazzled at first but once off the bus a guy approached us and helped us onto a local domuÅŸ (pronounced Domush), minibus in Turkish to make our way to Pamukkale, meaning Cotton Castle in Turkish. Interesting enough his guy turned out to be a part owner of the hotel we had booked and he had been waiting for us to arrive so he could help us.

The domuş was very busy with locals of all ages. John and I shared our fair share of stares. The driver knew where to drop us off and there on the on the dirt road we had someone waiting for us. It was all too easy. The hotel was very budget and looked a lot shabbier than the Internet pictures. Oh well, it was 10 lira each a night, a real bargain. That afternoon we relaxed and went for a little walk around Pamukkale village. The whole place appeared run down and in need of some TLC. The village seemed quite traditional, the women wearing the big flowery balloon pants, knitted vests and headscarfs. It was a quiet little place for such a touristy destination, we can only assume all the tourists you see up on the hill are day-trippers. That night we ate dinner in the hotel it was great home cooking. We both had a Saç Kebab pronounced such, which is only found in that region. It was delicious, Erin enjoyed it so much she had it the next night too.

Mini waterfall on the white limestone walls.
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The next morning we walked up to the village centre and ate some breakfast. It was our first taste of a Turkish Breakfast. Turkish breakfast is like a Greek salad on a plate but served with a boiled egg, bread and honey as well. It’s a large breakfast but also got boring quickly tomatoes and cucumbers are not something we can eat everyday for nearly three meals. We bought some snacks and water and then made our ascent up towards Cotton Castle.

As you walk up the dirt road heading to towards Pamukkale the hilltop appears to have snow on top. The further you walk up you start to see the individual pools. Most are dried up and affect the appearance of the place. However, it does still hold a fascinating feel to it all. At the top of the hill there is a man made river that flows the warm water down the hill. We don’t know why the water had been redirected and not left to natural distribution. We will cheat here and cut and paste a short paragraph on how Pamukkale is what it is.

The pools of Pamukkale, once all would have been full.
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‘The tectonic movements that took place in the fault depression of the Menderes river basin did not only cause frequent earthquakes, but also gave rise to the emergence of a number of very hot springs. It is the water from one of these springs, with its large mineral content — chalk in particular — that created Pamukkale.

Apart from some radioactive material, the water contains large amounts of hydrogen carbonate and calcium, which leads to the precipitation of calcium bi-carbonate. Every second 250 l hot water rises from this spring, precipitating for every liter of water 2.20 g chalk or for every second 0.55 kg of chalk. In the course of time some sources dried up because of earthquakes, while new ones arose in the neighbourhood.

People enjoying the hot spring water on their feet.
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The effect of this natural phenomenon leaves thick white layers of limestone and travertine cascading down the mountain slope resembling a frozen waterfall. One form of these formations consists of crescent-shaped travertine terraces with a shallow layer of water, lying in a step-like arrangement down the upper one-third of the slope, with the steps ranging from 1m to 6 m in height. The other form consists of stalactites, propping up and connecting these terraces.’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamukkale, accessed 07/11/2007)

We walked around the top, ate some snacks and checked out the natural spring pool set up over ancient ruins. We wold have loved to have had a swim but at 18 lira per person it was well out of our budget. Maybe next time we are in turkey, we have both decided that we want to return to Turkey oneday. We feel like have only scratched the surface.

That night we had a chat to the guy that met us on the dirt road on our first day. He was a young Moroccan guy that had been living in turkey for the last few years. He was a little tipsy and provided some drunken conversation. We were in bed about 9:30pm, which is about usual for us. The next day we made our way to Fetihye, back down to the Mediteranean Coast.