{ The travertine at Pamukkale }

June 16, 2012

It is SO HOT. It must be over 100 F and with very little trees, this area feels like a big oven. I am totally grilled like kebab. I don’t think I will go travel in middle east in my life time.

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Pamukkale, 19 kilometres north of Denizli, is Turkey’s foremost mineral-bath spa for the natural beauty: hot calcium-laden waters spring in the earth and cascade over the cliff. When they cool they form dramatic travertines of hard, brilliantly white calcium that form pools.

Pamukkale is a spa since the Romans built the spa town of Hierapolis around a sacred warm-water spring. The Sacred Pool remains, plagued by marble columns with the Roman Temple of Apollo. You may swim in it for 30 TRY.

Pamukkale used to be a popular stop on every backpacker’s trip to Turkey. Adventurous travelers would remain in Pamukkale Town’s small pensions and hotels, delight in the warm mineral water of the travertime pools, linger over long dinners with drinks at night, exchange tales from the road, and customarily have a very wonderful amount of time in this laid-back atmosphere.