Day 135: Thursday 31 July – Pamukkale’s Travertines, Hierapolis and Aphrodisias, by Ken

I didn’t need the alarm I had setbon my phone to wake me, the Muezzin’s call from nearby had me wide awake in a matter of seconds. I felt less than ideal, probably the glass of raki before going to bed. I waited until 5:45 to wake Jane so we could see the travertines at first light. Jane wasn’t happy, it seemed there was some misunderstanding as to when we were going to get up. She was clearly of the view we had decided we didn’t need to be up before dawn, my view was the opposite.

Nevertheless, Jane gamely got up and went in to Mabel to prepare for the day. I sat outside waiting. All of a sudden the early morning peace was shattered by a deafening roar directly above me. I let out a very loud f*** with lots of exclamation marks. The shock was sufficient as to almost require a change of underpants. Less than 100 feet above me was a hot air balloon with its burner firing. Possibly the noise of the burners drowned out my expletive, possibly not. Jane came running out wondering what was wrong.

Early Morning Fright

We set off for the lower entrance to the travertines. Half way there Jane realised she had forgotten the guide book and returned to Mabel. I continued up to the ticket kiosk. The path was blocked by tape and there was no sign of life. I climbed over the tape and found the travertines are open 08:00 to 21:00, not 24 hours as stated by our guide book. I met Jane halfway back to Mabel and gave her the news. It’s fair to say she was less than impressed.

We set off again at 7:45, just three others were waiting for the kiosk to open. A security guard manned the tape and a woman was busy tidying the kiosk. On the dot of 8:00 the guard removed the tape and the kiosk opened for business.

The travertines have been formed by thermal water from a spring on a plateau above Pamukkale flowing over the edge of the plateau. As the water cools carbon dioxide is given off and hard chalk, or travertine, accumulates. Over the millennia the travertine has slowly advanced south westwards and is now approximately 500 m long extending approximately 200 metres down the hillside.

Travertines From Bottom

We walked about 100 metres along a rough path to the base of the travertine. It was a remarkable sight with water a few tens of milimetres deep flowing towards us in a broad band over the brilliant white rock. A sign required us to remove our shoes before stepping on to the travertine. To start our walk we had first to cross a trench cutting off the flow of water at the base of the travertine. That was hard work, the trench was half a metre deep and too wide to step across, particularly given the uncertainty as to how slippery the wet travertine would be. A paddle through the trench and an ungainly clamber up the other side had us both standing on the travertine that was easy to walk on as the water swirled around our feet. A small footbridge wouldn’t have gone amiss to help people cross the trench safely and with dignity.

About To Cross Trench And Onto Travertines

We were soon joined by two dogs, one looked to be a Golden Retriever, the other was clearly a bitzer puppy. They were having a whale of a time splashing and charging up and down in the water. Worringly, the puppy tried to nip Jane's and my ankles but without any success.

Having Fun

Nippy Puppy

Puppy Trailing Me

We stopped lots of times to take photographs, the early morning light gave pools formed by artificial barriers a blue tinge which stood out against the dark backdrop where the travertine was yet to see the sun. Some of the travertine had brown tinges, iron deposits, possibly? It was a truly wonderful sight and I doubt very much it could have been better at dawn.

Starting The Ascent Of The Travertines

Shortly After Setting Off

As we neared the top we met people starting on the walk down. As at Ephesus yesterday it appeared our buses dropped their passengers at the top and picked them up at the bottom. Some of the people we encountered were wearing only budgie smugglers or bikinis, strange sights indeed.

Tourists On Their Way Down

At the top of the travertines we came across our puppy friend again. It was lying on its back thrashing its legs while three other young dogs play fought with her. We walked along a boardwalk that took us away from the rapidly growing crowd and sat for a while taking in the view. It was quite amazing looking out over travertines with its pools of different hues while below was the town with the parched plains beyond.

Travertines Seen From The Top

Jane Pleased With The Bag She Bought in Sirence

The entry price for the travertines also gave us entry to the remains of the ancient town of Hierapolis founded in the 2^nd century BC at the top of the travertines. We were in two minds whether to visit but eventually decided to take a look at the theatre. It was hard work climbing a steep hillside to reach the theatre entrance at the top of its tiers of seats. We were so pleased we did, it was by far the best we had seen so far in our travels. Starting in 1957 Italian archaeologists had been working to restore the stage to its former state. Work was still ongoing, but we could clearly see what a spectacular place it would have been originally.

Starting The Climb Up To The Theatre at Hierapolis

Making Hard Work Of Getting Up To The Theatre

Theatre, Hierapolis

We walked back to the top of the travertines. By then the dress code was such that we felt positively overdressed as the majority were in togs. The sights were diverse ranging from men in budgie smugglers partially obscured by their overhanging bellies to very attractive women in bikinis.

Dress Code

Walking back down the travertines people were really getting into the swing of things. Most people were in togs, lots were being photographed striking silly poses, some seem to have got themselves wedged in the water cut off trench while others were daubing themselves in the white calcium sludge at the bottom of pools. Jane did likewise, but felt only her shins were in need of whatever curative properties the sludge provided.

Woman Wedged In Trench

Beauty and the Beast

Getting Plastered

After a brief break at Mabel we set off to walk to the Ptt to get a smart card for the toll motorways. We arrived at the Ptt at 12:20, it was closed, a notice on the door gave the opening hours as 8:30 to 12:30 and 1:30 to 5:30. We headed back through some of the town’s side streets stopping at a bakers to buy bread.

We decided to have lunch at the restaurant decked out with Turkish lanterns that we had given a miss last night. It turned out to be mutton dressed as lamb (as my mother would have said). It looked good, but that was about it. A young waiter (a student from Malawi, we subsequently found out) took forever to bring water for Jane and an Efes for me. We ordered pancakes having seen a woman sitting outside making them. The choice was limited, Jane ordered spinach and cheese, I chose potato and cheese, with a joint salad for starters. The salad arrived with Jane’s pancake, she asked where the other was, it was on it’s way. A Brazilian waiter came by and said it wouldn’t be long. After a significant wait the lad from Malawi came back and said they were out of potatoes, would I like another filling. I told him to forget it making do with the salad. We weren’t given any bread so I used some of that we bought to mop up the dressing. While we ate the Malawian and then the Brazilian chatted up two young women at the next table.

We walked back, collected Smarty and drove to the Ptt. It was open and the man had good English. That Ptt didn’t issue the smart cards, I would need to visit a Ptt in a larger town!

We set a course for Aphrodisias, about 100km away. Passing through the large town of Denizli, where we didn’t waste time trying to find a Ptt, Smarty got a lot of attention from other drivers with yet more smiles, waves and thumbs up. We stopped on the outskirts of Denizli to fill Smarty. That entailed a pump attendant typing her registration number into a keypad. Once filling was complete I was handed a docket to take to the cash desk where after paying I received two dockets and was asked to give one to the man. It seems they must have had problems with non-payers in Turkey.

South of Denizli we joined a dual carriageway where bitumen had bled through the chip forming a river of molten bitumen that flowed along the inside lane. Cars and trucks were leaving their tire tracks in the stuff. Jane suddenly felt tired, pulled over, handed driving duties over to me and promptly fell asleep.

I had to do a double take when I saw a car coming towards me in the fast lane on my side of the road. He had his hazard warning lights on which I guess the driver thought made it OK!

We left the dual carriageway at the town of Tavas and took a very poor two lane road to Aphrodisias. We were almost there when Jane woke up, by then I was feeling very sleepy. The road to Aphrodisias was blocked by a barrier arm so we turned around and parked in a large car park nearby. There was a small bar to one side and I bought two cans of Coke to wake us up. 7 lira paid for the car park and a shuttle service to and from the ruins at Aphrodisias. The two shuttles each comprised of a trailer pulled by a tractor.

This time we spotted the audio guide kiosk and invested in one each.

The remains on the site date back to the 2^nd century BC when the Romans developed an existing settlement. It was renowned for its school of sculpture which sourced high grade marble from quarries nearby. The site has been excavated and partially restored by a team from New York University who started in 1961 and continue to work there.

In spite of being 600 metres above sea level, the temperature was in the mid 30s, and without a cooling breeze it felt hotter. Our guide book recommended finishing a tour of the site in the air conditioned cool of the museum. The audio guide had us starting at the museum which contained lots of impressive artefacts, including many statues from the site.

Museum, Aphrodisias

Constantinople Hairstyle Of The Day
(Clearly one of Harpo Marx's relies)

We walked to the very impressive re-erected Tetrapylon that formed a monumental gateway. 

Tetrapylon, Aphrodisias

We continued from there to the stadium which seated 30,000 (that’s almost the size of Wellington’s Cake Tin) and is said to be one of the best preserved in Turkey. It was certainly the best of the many we had seen in our travels with it’s tiers of stone terraces largely intact. We entered at one end and I just had to walk the 200 metres to the far end. Jane came part of the way, but felt the reward of continuing wasn’t worth the tiring effort in the blistering heat. At the far end I climbed to the top of the terracing, Jane was no more than a dot in the distance. I walked around the top to my favourite position in a stadium at Third Man where an olive tree had conveniently taken root. I sat there in the shade for a while marveling at the effort that had gone into constructing the stadium and what a sight it must have been filled with 30,000 Romans.

Stadium, Aphrodisias

View From Third Man

Temple Of Aphrodite

After catching up with Jane we continued anti-clockwise around the site taking in the Temple of Aphrodite and the Bishops Palace. Next to that was the very well preserved Bouleuterion. Next came the Baths of Hadrian complete with its original floor tiles followed by an enormous double Agora.

Temple Of Aphrodite

Baths of Hadrian

It took a great deal of willpower to climb up to the theatre, it was hot, time was getting on and we were getting tired. We were very pleased we had made the effort, the 7,000 seat theatre was on a par with that at Hierapolis we had seen earlier in the day with the first of the three stories of the stage building having been reconstructed.

Theatre, Aphrodisias

Wall Made Up Of Friezes

On our way back to the entrance we stopped to have another look at the Agora where a cat awaited Jane’s arrival.

Agora, Aphrodisias

We were embarrassed to find when removing our headsets that the protective gauzes to the ear pieces were wringing wet with our sweat.

As we waited for our tractor powered shuttle to arrive a man was trying to bump start his moped. It sounded very much like it was out of petrol. As we passed him in the shuttle pushing his moped our driver held out his cigarette lighter, offering the man the few drops of petrol it contained.

Shuttle Aphrodisias

We bought two more cans of coke to keep us alert on the 100km drive back to Pammukale. The road outside Denizli was still a river of bitumen and drivers in the town were still pleased to see us.

It was well after 19:00 when we arrived back at Mabel, we were tired and didn’t feel like going out to eat. In any case our Rough Guide claimed eating out in Pammukale is almost uniformly mediocre and that was borne out by our two experiences. We opted to stay in and ate egg, nuts, avocado and fruit.