Pamukkale

Sometimes short titles are the best ones.

Click below to read about our day in Pamukkale



After the previous day being so full, it was kind of relaxing to have some time just riding to Pamukkale. Sure it was three hours, but it really was nice to rest and see the country side of Turkey.

Stopping just before Pamukkale, we had another buffet style lunch.  Nothing much to speak of here, we were all just really excited for what we saw just down the road.

The sheer white hills of Pamukkale

After lunch, one of our group needed a few minutes to visit a mosque to pray, so we made a pit stop at the base of the cliffs "to make pictures." There was a pond there with many ducks. Pictures and videos ensued.

Click for ducks

This stop allowed us to get a good look of the scale and color of the the mountains. Our timing ended up being perfect, just a few days earlier it had been snowing very hard for the area. If everything had been covered in white, it would of made it less special.

The word Pamukkale itself actually means "Cotton Castle", from the bright white look similar to cotton.

After our brief stop, we made our way up the cliff via motorized transportation. At the top, you got to see the remains of the ancient city of Hierapolis. Hierapolis stands for "Holy City", and the hot springs in the area have long since been used for what many believed to be healing properties, as far back as the 2nd century. Because of this, the town that sprouted up around them was massive.

Unlike Ephesus, which is still mostly underground, Hierapolis is not quite as buried. It's easy to see the layout of the entire city. Shortly after arriving we set forth on a little hike across the ruins. Most tours don't go for this path, but our guide was insistent that it was worth it. When we got to the Theatre, it absolutely was.

Built around 200 AD, the stage was 300 feet long and still stands today. Throw in a seating capacity of nearly 15.000 and you have one very impressive display of architecture.

Short video of our hike

From the Theatre we walked the path back towards the cliffs and they did not disappoint.

The pools of standing water are especially cool

We had to take off our shoes, but once we did, we could actually go out and walk on the limestone and stick our feet in the water that was up there.

The cliffs also have a peculiar ability to make any picture awesome.

As proved here

It was so pretty, the pictures really don't do it justice. (They are pretty good though....)

With some extra time before our departure, we tore ourselves away from the cliffs to don our swimwear and take a dip into a mineral hot spring.

Seriously cool, the water was very warm and refreshing. Our tour guide claimed he was 85 and just looked like he was 30 something from swimming in the pools. I think by that logic the pool would of taken me back to the 1960's...... That is how these things work right?...

It was an awesome way to cap off our trip of the Turkish country side. After drying off, we hiked back to our bus which took us to the airport. From there we had about an hour flight back into Istanbul. Even tho it was a short flight, Turkish Airlines still threw food at us. Which we were very thankful for as we hadn't eaten since the buffet. Landing in Istanbul, we were shuttled back to our hotel in old Istanbul known as Sultan Ahmet. Happy that tomorrow didn't have any plane trips, we were far from finished with our adventure and couldn't wait for more.

For the next day held a historical walking tour of Istanbul.

But, as you might of guessed, that is for the next post. Leave a comment of what you think of these posts. Be honest, I can handle it. The weekend should have another couple of posts wrapping this trip up and ending with a vlog. Stay awesome till then.