Day 6: Pamukkale/Hieropolis (July 4)

I awoke a bit early, around 10am to start the day and explore fully Pamukkale. The place located about 20km north of Denizli and was actually quite a bit inland from the coast. The terrain had changed and become more mountainous. I didn't get a chance to see what the place looked like the night before because I had arrived so late. I began my walk towards Pamukkale and almost as soon as I walked on the main street of the hotel I was able to see it very clearly. Extending into the sky on the side of the mountain was a very white slope (no doubt where Pamukkale got it's name).





As you can see, it almost looked like the side of a ski slope, which is a pretty striking site in the summer. I found the entrance to the place (which was about a third of the way up) on the right side of the mountain (from the perspective of this picture). Pamukkale was formed when warm mineral water cascaded over the cliff edge. As the water cooled, it deposited calcium on the side of the mountain, turning it white. What a cool place!

As I started to walk up to the mountain, I got to the guard structure. They informed me that if I did not have a Muze kart, it would be 20TL. I thought to myself...20 TL! That's crazy for this place (most ruins cost between 5 and 15 TL to see). I think even the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was 15TL. Luckily, it didn't matter because I did have a muze kart. The guard looked at the card and looked at me for a long time. It was hard for him to believe that I was actually a Turkish student. I explained in my Turkish that I was an exchange student. After a good solid 30 seconds of looking between the card and my face, he decided to let me pass. Great success!

Not far beyond where the entrance was restricted, there was sign that indicated that shoes were not allowed on the rock from this point until the top (which was quite a ways). They believed that restricting shoes would help preserve the calcium deposits. I took off my shoes and put them into my backpack and began walking barefoot into the mineral pools. The water was almost a blueish white color. The bottom of the pools were covered by a soft calcium mud that felt soft against my feet. I had my camera in my hands so I had to be careful not to drop it. There were several pools, which were called travertines, that one needed to walk through to get to the top. The calcium covered pathway was about 250m to the top and the tiny sharp ridges that the calcium formed sometimes made it difficult for the feet.



There were also deposits that made the cotton ball parts of the cotton castles:



I feel like words don't really do this place justice when you see the pictures.

Here is another neat one of the travertines near the top.



When I got the top, you can see a picture of me with the pathway I came behind me. Its absolutely stunning!



At the very top you had to be careful because there was running water running down the rock and into the travertines (the same running water that formed them over these thousands of years and formed the stalagmites under the pools.

After about an hour's walk I had reached the top. At the top of the dramatic walk lies the ancient city of Hieropolis. The city was founded in 190 BC by Eumenes II, the king of Pergamu. The city was built because it was believed that the pools of calcium water would cure ailments. It had a large Jewish community and an early Byzantine church. It was eventually abandoned after several earthquakes hit the area (the last in 1334).

The ruins themselves were pretty extensive over a fairly wide area. I walked to the east and started at the city walls near the southern entrance. From there I walked to the city center. It contained many things that a typical Roman ruined city would contain.

One unique thing though was the Plutonium, which was dedicated to Pluto, god of the underworld. The spring gives off toxic vapors, lethal to all but the priests. The priests would demonstrate the power of the spring by throwing in small animals and birds and watching them die. It is now marked by a sign that says "toxic gas". The gas is still poisonous and there is a grate installed to prevent people from getting too close to the spring.



Up the hill from the plutonium is the magnificent Roman Theater, which was capable of seating more than 12,000 people. The theater was built in two stages by Hadrian and Septimus Severus. It is in remarkably good shape. While I was there, I met some lady from Miami, FL who had forgotten her camera. It was nice to talk to someone in English for a little while since I was all alone. I took a picture of her for her and promised to send it to her.



Outside of the top of the theater, I ended up speaking to these Turkish people who were locally from there. A relative of theirs was someone who was employed as a security guard for the park. I made some small talk with them and rested from walking around the place. Up the hill from here was the Martyrium of St Phillip the Apostle. It is believed that St. Phillip was martyred here.

I hiked on the hillside down to Frontius Street, which was the main street in Hieropolis. Several more ruins were here, such as bath houses, columns, and the famous Byzantine gate.









Pretty cool, huh?

At the end of Frontius Street, there was a building with two latrines cut into the bottom to carry away sewage. Outside of the northern gate was the necropolis. For quite a ways, several sets of mausoleums marked where people had died and been buried in this graveyard. They had small stone structures with carvings on top of them.

From there I walked around the town back towards where I had entered. On this part, I don't know what some of the older buildings were, but I thought the juxtaposition of the ruins within the white rock was a unique site. Here is a picture of it.



Here are a couple of other pictures from the place.





After that I sat on the bench for a little while, talked to Husniye on the phone, and enjoyed taking in the scenery. It was quite lovely.I then went into the museum that was on site and walked around in there for about 30 minutes or so, observing some of the cool things they excavated.

I then headed down and took a few more pictures of myself in the travertines. I really liked the travertines. :)









I walked around in the town below and found a place to eat dinner. Pamukkale is not really known for any Turkish dish as far as I knew so I just had a kebab.

I then returned to my hotel and sat in the deck out by the pool and talked to some guy for a little while. It was then that I realized that the entire day it had been July 4th and I had barely noticed. I happen to really like the 4th of July and watching the fireworks and it was strange to me not being at home to celebrate. This was the first July 4th that I had ever been outside of the country. I told the guy (I think he was British) that he should wish me a Happy July 4th! This guy had decided he liked Pamukkale so much that he was staying there at a discounted rate for an indefinite amount of time. I thought it was a bit strange since there was not a whole lot going on there.

The pool to the hotel was nice (all of the hotels here have pools because the water is siphoned into them from the spring at the nearby Pamukkale. Perhaps it was luxurious for him and that's why he was staying? Who knows! I don't remember what else we spoke about but soon after I retired to my room to get some rest before I would make the journey south on the bus to Bodrum.