Pamukkale & Hierapolis

Driving to Pamukkale

With Kas in our rear view mirror, our next stop would be Pamukkale. I was excited for this stop since next to the hot air balloons, this was something I wanted to see. I’d seen many pictures online about the series of white Infinity pools and I wanted to witness it with my own eyes. We had a drive along the coast before heading inland towards Pamukkale.

After a few hours drive, we made a quick stop for lunch at a small rest spot along the highway. After driving in turkey for about a week, I found the concept of “truck stop” restaurants quite cool. I’m not sure if we have similar in North America, but these are fairly modern, the food is freshly prepared and grilled and seem to be set up to handle large events if needed. In any case, we were given the choice of a variety of skewers of meat which the cook then proceeded to grill once ordered. It was good except I had a case of my eyes being bigger than my tummy and I was unable to finish the two large skewers I had ordered.

Pamukkale-Hierapolis

With full stomachs we continued our journey to Pamukkale. As we got closer, you could see the white cliffs from a distance. These white pools are formed by mineral and calcium rich water flowing down the mountainside. The water collects and spills over creating these “stairs of pools” over time. Because of this natural phenomena, even the ancient Romans had built a city around these falls in order to harness the perceived health benefits of the thermal pools. So in visiting Pamukkale, you also have the chance to visit the ruins of Hierapolis as well.

Our plan would be to drive to the top and explore the ruins before walking down the white cliffs. There was also an option of swimming in an old Roman mineral pool that also housed some ruins in the pool as well. But after seeing it and how it looked kind of like a beach club instead of a unique experience, Gimpy and I decided to explore on our own.

Hierapolis – Theatre

Our first stop was to visit the Roman theatre at the top of the hill. This one was easily much larger than the one in Kas. Not only was it larger and you are able to get a good sense of the scale, it was perched on top of the hill so the view behind the stage was very scenic.

After getting our fill of the theatre, we spent the next hour walking through the ruins of the city. We passed through gates and walked on old roman roads eventually arriving at their necropolis. It’s fascinating to see the remnants the Romans had built and used. We got to walk through a number of these ruins and really appreciated at the design and engineering that went into it. 

To get back to the white cliffs, Gimpy and I walked along the edge of the cliff seeing Pamukkale from the other side. It was a beautiful walk looking over the valley below, and then seeing the pure white colouration of a section the cliff as we approached.

Pamukkale

From there all that was left to do was walk down the cliffs of Pamukkale. Before arriving, I didn’t think walking the cliffs was even an option. I had always assumed that because of its rarity and it being a UNESCO world heritage site, that tourists would only get to walk alongside it. I was wrong. The only real rule was that you had to be barefoot when walking the cliffs. So with my flip flops in my bag a few of us started the walk down.

My first impressions after seeing it was that it’s like snow. It looks so white and soft that. I was excited to walk it. However after taking the first few steps I realized that the analogy to snow could not be further from the truth. In fact when you see it up close, you will notice that there are either smooth slippery white curves or small sharp ridges all along the rock face. And you soon learn that walking on the ridges is not very pleasant for bare feet. So what you end up with is hundreds of tourists carefully walking up and down the cliffs trying to gingerly find their footing.

Regardless of the pain, it is still a sight to see. Being able to walk into and around the different pools is just so cool and satisfying! It took us about 40 minutes to get from the top to the bottom with stops in different pools. I really enjoyed this portion of the tour. Not only because it was high on my list of things to see. But also, because it’s such a unique phenomenon that I may never see anywhere else.

Selcuk Dinner

Once at the bottom, our bus was waiting for us. We boarded and made our way to Selcuk town. We’d be staying here for the next two nights. We arrived in the evening and went straight to dinner at Tat Cafe. It was your traditional Turkish fare and was just as tasty but not anything spectacular! I’m not sure if I was starting feel “Turkish fooded out”. Though, from this point I started looking for more unique menu items. I guess the hope was to add more variety to the diet.

After dinner, we made our way to our hotel to get checked in and settled. Ephesus was on the cards for tomorrow so we had a bit of an early start.