The Cotton Castle of Pamukkale

Discovering ancient Hierapolis and travertine pools

Log | Esper | Spring 2008 | All Alone In Aphrodisias

Liz:

The latrines at Hierapolis

What a great birthday weekend Jamie gave me. He drove us for over 840km round southern Turkey to some of the best archaeological sites in the Mediterranean. And he had a cold. I guess that's one of the reasons why I love him.

We left late on Saturday, so headed straight for Pamukkale and Hierapolis. To reach the spectacular Roman city of Hierapolis you have to walk barefoot up a calcium covered mountainside. Why barefoot? Because it is a UNESCO world heritage site that has been eroded away in the past by hordes of tourists. Pamukkale means “Cotton Castle”, which is exactly what the cliff looks like. Hot spring water falls down from the plateau carrying tiny particles of calcium which over millennia have formed travertine pools, stalagmites and stalactites. It looks like a fairy wonderland. You can't walk in the pools any more, but you can walk up the calcium covered path alongside, through ever warmer water. It felt like bliss on our teak-deck weary feet.

The UNESCO World Heritage pools of Pamukkale

Carved stone, Hierapolis

Once at the top of the ridge we were struck by the beauty of the setting and the cleverness of the Romans in choosing to put a city there. It has everything. A bath house or two, theatres, temples, agoras, streets, arches, a necropolis, a splendid latrine and even a Plutonium spring which gives off deadly poisonous gas that still kills today. We had quite looked forward to bathing in the “Sacred Pool”, but were disappointed that a rather less than divine swimming pool with some old bits of rocks and columns at the bottom of it had been turned into a tourist attraction. A brash sign announced the entrance to the “Antique Pool” and once through we were met with a restaurant, bar, tourist shops and banging Turkish pop music. We walked round it, watching some fat and pasty looking people splashing about, and hastily left. This was in marked contrast to the museum next door (unfortunately closed) which is housed in the very elegant and imposing Bath House.

Theatre, Hierapolis

It is difficult to choose a “best bit” because the city as a whole works so well, but the theatre takes some beating. Situated near the top of the ridge, with views looking steeply down across the valley for miles and miles it seats 12,000 people. It is in good condition (including the inevitable restoration, apparently by Italians in the 1970s) with most of the stage in place and the seating in very good order. Strangely I also greatly enjoyed walking through the Necropolis and exploring some of the tombs.

The calcium pools of Pamukkale

We stayed at the Beyaz Kale Pension in Pamukkale village, where we dined on home cooked food. It's quite a pretty little village, considering the hordes of tourists that must pass through it all year round. Unfortunately, but like a lot of places in Turkey, they overdo the hard sell by trying to get you to eat in their restaurant or stay at their pension. When we first arrived we were flagged down and chased up the road by men on mopeds. Needless to say we didn't favour any of these places and ended up staying with the lovely Haçer instead, who just smiled and made us welcome when we stepped through her gate.

"Pamukkale is a wonderful little village, as Liz suggests. The atmosphere is spoilt, however, by the pension owners touting for business. It's like an episode of the Twilight Zone, stuck in a village over-run with the living dead who seem to follow you endlessly wherever you venture. One zombie followed us round the entire village on his moped, insisting that his pension had the best views, whilst another just stood in the middle of the road like a rabid dog, arms outstretched (he could have been holding a menu but we didn't hang around to look). The only way to deal with this annoyance is to smile, look straight ahead and keep running, or blow their brains out with a 12-gauge. Either works. Don't let the bloody mess spoil your views of the sunset though."

Jamie

Log | Esper | Spring 2008 | All Alone In Aphrodisias

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Pamukkale:
Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site and attraction in south-western Turkey in the Denizli Province. Pamukkale is located in Turkey's Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which enjoys a temperate climate over the greater part of the year. The ancient city of Hierapolis was built on top of the white "castle" which is in total about 2700 meters long and 160m high. It can be seen from a great distance, eg. when driving down the hills on the opposite side of the valley to the town of Denizli, which is 20 km away.

The tectonic movements that took place in the fault depression of the Menderes river basin did not only cause frequent earthquakes, but also gave rise to the emergence of a number of very hot springs. It is the water from one of these springs, with its large mineral content — chalk in particular — that created Pamukkale.

Apart from some radioactive material, the water contains large amounts of hydrogen carbonate and calcium, which leads to the precipitation of calcium bi-carbonate. Every second 250 l hot water rises from this spring, precipitating for every liter of water 2.20 g chalk or for every second 0.55 kg of chalk. In the course of time some sources dried up because of earthquakes, while new ones arose in the neighbourhood.

The effect of this natural phenomenon leaves thick white layers of limestone and travertine cascading down the mountain slope resembling a frozen waterfall. One form of these formations consists of crescent-shaped travertine terraces with a shallow layer of water, lying in a step-like arrangement down the upper one-third of the slope, with the steps ranging from 1m to 6 m in height. The other form consists of stalactites, propping up and connecting these terraces.

The oldest of these rocks are crystalline marbles, quartzites and schists. The oldest date back to the Pliocene period, while the top layer is Quaternary in age. Fresh deposits of calcium carbonate give the site a dazzling white look.

These sources were well-known in the Antiquity. They were described by the Roman architect Vitruvius. The Phrygian Greeks built Hierapolis on top of the hill. They ascribed medical properties to the spring water, bestowed by the gods, especially Asklepios (demigod of medicine) and his daughter Hygieia (goddess of health, cleanliness and sanitation), under the protection of Apollo (god of medicine and healing).

Source: Wikipedia