After leaving Ephesus, our next destination was Pamukkale, the famous location of the white calcium waterfalls that is one of the most famous places in Turkey. We took a bus from Ephesus and after a mystic experience with the Turk driving the bus we got on another bus and made it to the town after two hours. The town itself wasn't very impressive - the major days of tourism came to an end a few years ago after UNESCO declared the site a World Heritage site and closed down the five 5-star hotels on top of the cliffs. Since then, some tourists come by bus, but more and more people don’t make the trip to the town.
We arrived at about 1:30, but because it was so hot (and because the white calcium would reflect the heat and make it even hotter - there was a forecast of 99 degrees for our area), we decided it’d be better to chill down below and then head up towards the evening. At 4 we met up with Prof. Shields and talked about the different buildings we’d seen in Ephesus and compared the different layers of identity we’d seen at Ephesus – just there, we’d seen Greek and Roman buildings contrasted with modern Turkey. At 6, we decided to head up to the cliffs.
The cliffs of Pamukkale and the ruins around it are one of the most impressive sites any of us have seen on this trip. And fun. Here is a picture of the area (not by me) Because Turkish authorities have mishandled the amount of tourists coming into the site, many of the cliffs that once were filled with water are now empty. Still, walking up the cliffs along a road among the white calcium which still had pools was a lot of fun. We had to take off our shoes to walk on the calcium so that we could go up to the plateau on top of the white cliffs, partly to preserve the calcium, partly so we didn’t have to get our shoes wet because water cascades all the way down.
Here's a picture of Yekta walking up the road through one of the pools:
We were definitely not the first people to go to Pamukkale – the first people arrived more than 2000 years ago, drawn by the white cliffs, the hot spring water, the beautiful view, and the strategic location along the King’s Highway, an ancient road used by the Persians and by Alexander. The ancient city of Hierapolis was located on the plateau adjacent to the cliffs and had a population of 100,000. The people of the city thought that the water that formed the cliffs, which was filled with calcium and carbon dioxide, had healing properties, and so built temples to the gods along the sites where the springs came out. One of the temples, the Temple of Apollo, was built on top of a cave that emitted a poison gas – people thought the area was cursed, and so only certain people who were blessed could enter it (it turned out to be sulfur, and the people who could go in had mastered the way they breathed in the cave).
Once we got to the top, we made a beeline for the pool. The pool were like the Tabacon hot springs at Arenal in Costa Rica – except that in the hot springs were Roman columns. We never got over the fact that we were swimming in warm water in an ancient building that had been flooded hundreds of years ago. Here's a picture:
We made our way by the Temple of Apollo and then wound our way up to the theater. This was probably my favorite part of the whole area – the theater was set on top of a hill overlooking the plateau which in turn overlooks the entire valley.
The group:
The theatre was my favorite part. We acted like little kids and started climbing all over. I saw Zoe at end of one overhang on the other side of the theater and decided I wanted to do that. It took me a while to work past my newfound fear of heights (more a fear of heights where it is very possible that I’m going to fall off), but I finally got there. Here's the ledge I climbed on - this is a shot of Edward on it (the 40 foot drop isn't visible):
My foot standing on the ledge:
After that, we headed down the mountain back to our hostel, where a delicious four-course meal awaited us. It was a good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment