April 28 – Pamakkale and the Cotton Castle

Today we are visiting the beautiful white terraces of Pamakkale, stair-stepping down the hillside and forming beautiful turquoise pools. (Formed by water rich in calcium bicarbonate cascading down the mountainside.)

It was pretty gorgeous.  They rotate the release of water across the entire width of the deposit in order to keep the surfaces looking white.  However, this causes the location of the turquoise pools to change frequently.  Fortunately, there were some near the top so we were able to get to them.

The downside (a big downside) is that one can only go out on them barefoot.  That makes sense in that you don’t want the tourist to do any more damage than necessary to the deposits.  However, there is nothing “cottony” about these terraces.  There are pebbles everywhere…really rough ball bearings and tiny, tiny sharp pieces and rough, ridged surfaces. 

Most people seemed to do reasonably well but Mary, particularly, struggled with walking on these surfaces (minimal calluses).  But we made it down to the first major pool (maybe 50 feet or so), stepped into a pool (just so we could say that we did)...

and then headed back up to smoother surfaces and our shoes.

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More Pamakkule Terraces
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The top of the hill was shared by Hierapolis, another ancient city.  We didn’t really spend any time there but did walk over to the baths where there is a nice pool fed by a spring.

Temple of Apollo

We stopped in town for a Gӧzleme lunch...

and took a short walk through part of the town before heading to the hotel for the rest of the day.