Turkey: Day VII (Izmir, Pamukkale, and Hierapolis)

Friday, March 25^th:

Pamukkale Travertines:

            I feel like each day we have a stranger but more awesome adventure. Today we woke up for the hotel buffet breakfast of Börek, Turkish Delight, peach nectar, assorted meat, cheese, and bread, before heading off to the Pamukkale Travel companies desk to purchase a bus ticket to Denizli. I should note that I also got to try a Middle Eastern delight at breakfast known as Helva, a very melt-in-your-mouth sugary treat that is made differently in every nation in the region. Denizli is the capital of a province to the east of Izmir, and is about a three and a half hour bus ride from Izmir. We had some difficulty, again with the language barrier, trying to get onto the correct bus, but we made it and both got some well needed rest on the bus. Another note that Jen and I were laughing at, Turkish bus services are like airline services around the world. Instead of a flight attended, the busses have an attendant of its own who serves drinks and food through the bus during your ride. It is a pretty cool idea that I enjoyed a lot! We had some difficulty trying to figure out which stop was ours, and as the bus travelled the 250 or so kilometers to Denizli, our surroundings became more and more Middle-Eastern. The mountains also got taller, until snow-capped peaks of over 10,000 feet came into view in the distance. We were taking this bus to Denizli to go to the World Heritage Site of Pamukkale and Hierapolis, an ancient Roman city built on the top of a beautiful natural site of calcium deposits in travertine shapes down the cliffs.

The White Soils of Pamukkale, Turkey:

            We finally got to Denizli and found a shuttle for the 45 minute ride up to Pamukkale. The city of Denizli seemed very Middle-Eastern and all over the place, as the roads were very hectic and the buildings were very rustic. A man named Mustafa spoke very good English and helped us find our way while offering us a restaurant recommendation that we would use later in the town of Pamukkale. We got off the bus and figured out that busses ran all hours of the night back to Izmir, which really calmed my nerves and let me enjoy the rest of the day. On our walk up the hill to the World Heritage Site, we also randomly ran into the Turkish Army, or Jandarma, working on something in the town. It was definitely super random to run into a group of men carrying submachine guns in such a remote town, but we just walked by and it was no big deal.

            Walking up to Pamukkale, one can immediately notice that the ground is a very bright white color. A high level of calcium in the hot spring water that runs down the mountains has caused the ground to turn bright white. It almost looks like snow on the ground, which is not so far-fetched as there is snow on the high peaks that look down on you. It is also these calcium deposits that hardened over time and formed the travertines that cascade down the cliffs. As we walked up, we reached the steam of water running down the hill, and were required to remove our shoes to not hurt the hardening sediment as we walked upon it (and to not slip on the slippery, wet slope). It is a very cool natural feature, and the water feels very warm on your feet as you walk up. The park management has created some artificial travertine pools that visitors are allowed to walk in and bask in the sun and the warm spring water.

A Roman Statue of Neptune:

            At the top of the calcium-stained cliffs, visitors are greeted with a vastly different sight. In stark contrast to the natural creation below stand the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Hierapolis. We walked around some of the ruins which have stood scattered since a series of earthquakes centuries ago. We walked into a sub-museum of the park, the museum of small artifacts, which is built inside large Roman bath buildings that still stand. Inside are tons of ancient coins, pots, tools, and sculptures to the gods. There is also a collection of friezes to the gods and sarcophagi inside in very good condition, alongside a series of tombstones of gladiators and prominent figures of their time.

The Theatre of Hierapolis:

            We continued up the hills towards the massive Roman Theatre. A symbol of ancient Roman cities, the theater is the largest structure still standing and the park management have been restoring the stage facade for years. It is a beautiful building and offers great views of the entire city and mountains surrounding the visitor. We climbed the hill even farther to discover the Martyrion of St. Phillip, or the location where St. Phillip was martyred. These ruins are absolutely stunning to walk around, and very humbling that our own human race was so advanced so long ago. We continued back down the hill to the park center, a series of restaurants and shops built on the location of an old roman bath. The park management has restored much of the bath and routed the hot spring water into it, offering a modern roman bath pool for visitors to swim in for a (slightly steep) fee of 25TL. Also very cool, an earthquake in the 14^th century knocked Roman columns into the pool, and swimmers walk all over them and swim in the pool with them. It seems slightly gimmicky at first, but you cannot help but feel like you are back in Ancient Rome as you swim around the hot pool.

Frontinus Street of Hierapolis, Turkey:

            After snagging a quick tea, Jen and I made our way across the other half of the city. This portion of the city holds hundreds of ancient tombs, including many built right into the white soil which again offers an interesting juxtaposition of man and nature. Also in this direction are the ruins of the old Agora, or the marketplace in Roman times, as well as massive arches of a basilica. Visitors can walk directly down the colonnaded Frontinus Street, the main avenue of the city, and see ruins of a very well preserved latrine and various other buildings. At the end of Frontinus Street is the massive Necropolis of Hierapolis, one of the largest in all of the Ancient Roman Empire. As we discovered later, the reason for this old cemetery being so large, is that Romans wanted to be buried near Saints, and St. Phillip is buried in the city. Our walk back down to the town of Pamukkale was breathtaking as we enjoyed glimpses of the sun setting over the distant mountains and casting its orange and pink sky reflections on the pretty blue waters falling down the mountain.

A Roman Tomb Set Into the White Soil of Pamukkale:

            Back in town, Jen and I got our bus tickets sorted out and found that the last regularly scheduled bus home was at 9:30pm, so we sat down at a wonderful restaurant called Mustafa at the Mustafa Hostel. It was recommended to us by the bus attended that had helped us get up to Pamukkale in the first place, and it was a very cozy little setting with comfortable seats filled with pillows to sit on. We chatted with locals and a nice Czech traveler while watching the Turkish U-18 Football Team demolish Liechtenstein by a score of 6-1. I ate some lentil soup along with a dish called the Pamukkale Kebap, which was a chicken kebap dish that was broiled along with peppers, tomatoes, onions, and garlic and was served on a hot plate with the fire that had cooked it still blazing underneath. It was a great presentation, and an even better meal! We headed back down to the bus station to catch our bus and made it just in time. The bus seemed to take a while, and unlike Jen, I was not tired at all so I stayed awake on the ride and listened to whatever English music they had. Each bus seat had a monitor with some movies, TV shows, and music on it, however just about all they had for English music was the Ace of Bass Greatest Hits album—shoot me now. The bus got back to Izmir around 12:30am and after some trouble finding our free shuttle back to Basmane, we finally got home and crashed before another early morning and full day of touring. Phew!

Pamukkale, Turkey at Night: