Cotton Castle

Today we are taking our first organized tour group outing to the town of Pamukkale (in Turkish this means Cotton – Pamuk Castle – Kale) and the surrounding ruins of the ancient city of Hierapolis. We are supposed to meet the tour folks at 8:30 am, and all is going well, hey, we are even early – but we end up waiting for an Aussie couple that is 25 minutes late, and in turn, the whole tour is waiting on us. Anywho, we hit the road for the 3 hour bus ride to Pamukkale, and are thrilled to find that our tour guide, Mahmet – is the Turkish Vince Vaughn (but not as tall). Not that I would ever advise anyone to watch the movie The Break Up, but this guy was doing a spot on tour guide version of Vince Vaughn from this movie – complete with silly little breaking into song and waxing poetic about the figs and olives of the Meander valley.


Ulises and I usually are pretty prepared when we go on hikes or walks in sunburned ruins, however we were thinking, piece of cake, this is a tour group – they would tell us if we needed anything special – right? We started to get a little nervous after Vince Vaughn warned us for the 5th time that the temperature at the site would be about 41Degrees (this is about 105 Fahrenheit), with no shade, and we’d better make sure we had hats, sunscreen and water (we had none of anything).

We finally arrived at the Hierapolis site at 1PM and began the tour of the site. It is an ancient necropolis (about 2nd century BC) as well as functional city and baths built up around the natural mineral rich hot springs that exist in the area. Apparently those who were ill would come to bathe in the mineral rich waters, and often died here (hence a huge tomb and cemetery just outside the city walls). The site is quite striking, nestled in the foothills over looking the extremely fertile Meander Valley. It was of course HOT, not just HOT, but the kind of HOT that makes you think that your brain might be cooking, and you can imagine how people might think that a 90Degree hot spring is somehow cold.

Anywho, we plodded our way through the site and made it to the Ancient pool, the only area where full swimming is now allowed (as once the calcium deposits start to settle on the floors of the spring areas, you are not allowed to walk on them). Apparently Cleopatra bathed here on a regular basis – which is one of the main selling points at the ancient pools (where you can pay to swim with 500 of your closest friends for 25 US).

Now a note about Pamukkale, it is a naturally occurring result of hot springs that are extremely rich in calcium, and have caused over the years travertine and limestone pools and terraces to form on the mountainsides. It is an odd site, looking like someone baked a cake on a mountainside, and somehow it poured over the pan during the baking process. It is extremely picturesque, and still in the midst of heavy restoration as it was damaged before it was declared a UNESCO world heritage site.

Ulises and I skipped out on a full swim in the pools and decided to check out the most impressive amphitheater on the mountain. It was amazing, and we had it nearly to ourselves. Afterwards I ran down to dip my feet in the small terrace pools that you are allowed to walk in and we hustled to get back on the bus and head back to Selcuk for a much deserved rest and a huge bottle of water!