February 16, 2015tinyexpats

Essence of reminiscence – that unforgettable journey to Pamukkale

This is my first post for the Essence of Reminiscence blogging event, started by The Confused Young Adult. Her prompt for today was That Unforgettable Journey and I decided that I would tell you about our day trip to Pamukkale, Turkey. The photos we had were made in the 90s and now lay printed in an album at my parents place, so I couldn’t get those to show you. I’ll use some that I found in Creative Commons.

I was staying with my family in a hotel nearby Antaliya, South Turkey. It was a relaxed holiday on the Mediterranean Sea – my sister was about 4 or 5 years old (I was a teenager then) and my mom didn’t feel like taking her on any kind of sightseeing tours. That’s why, it was only my dad and I who went along with a couple of family friends on a road trip to Pamukkale.

We left very early and it took us about 4 hours to reach that place. In Turkish, Pamukkale means ‘cotton castle’ and it surely does look like something out of a fantasy book. In the middle of green hills, you suddenly see a white mountain with it’s slope consisting of sparkling white terraces filled with turquoise water. Incredible.

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The terraces are formed by minerals left by the thermal water running down the hill. On the top of this white hill you can see the remains of an ancient city Hierapolis. I can only imaging what a beautiful site it must have been, when those ruins were whole and inhabited, sitting on the top of a white cloud. Now the Hierapolis remains and the Pamukkale are recognised as a World Heritage site.

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Nearby the snow-white terraces, you can find swimming pools with hot thermal water. There’re 17 various hot water springs here, some too hot to bathe in.

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The water in the pools is so transparent, that it’s hard to judge the depth – it all seems so close, you can touch, even if in some places you cannot reach the bottom, if you try.

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As the water is pretty hot, like in a bath tub, it is not allowed to stay there for a long time. I felt sorry to leave – it’s amazingly enjoyable.

We set off on our way back already in the evening, arriving to the hotel at night. I spent only a day in Pamukkale, but it was an unforgettable journey without a doubt.

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15 comments

    • Thank you, but I cannot take any credit for that! I found the images in the Creative Commons, as my own photos were shot before the digital age and I don’t even have an access to those albums now.

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  7. Thank you for this nice post. I first read about this place in a book The Wonders of the World and it was in my childhood, since then I am wishing to visit it. Nowdays there is a turkish bistro called Pamukkale on our street so I am reminded of this dream every day. I had no idea they actually let you in the watter and that there was a town on the hill. Thanks for the informaton.

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    • Glad you liked it :) They don’t always let you into those white terraces, as a large number of tourists can damage them. But there’re separate pools with mineral water on the top of that hill, where anyone can take a dip.

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