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Published: July 21st 2011
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Day 14: Today we got up in the morning and hopped on a bus bound for Pamukkale. The word Pamukkale means cotton castle and is so coined due to the cotton appearance of the bleached limestone. Since we were staying in Hieropolis ("holy city"), also known as Pamukkale, our tour guide informed us we could wander at our own pace because we didn't have to catch the bus back to Selcuk. Naturally it wasn't the ruins that interested us at this point; but, the copious amounts of limestone that naturally deposited out of the thermal springs.
When we first arrived at the site of Pamukkale our guide informed us that we were lucky because there was water. I was a little confused at first until I realized that this place is run strictly by tourism and they obviously do not have a single environmental conservationist on staff. What they have done is capped and valved the source of the spring so they can control the flow; which isn't out of the ordinary, except for the fact that their reasoning for controlling the flow is a little wacky. The reason they controlled the flow of water was because it turned the
limestone orange, green, and yellow. They believe that tourists will not come if it is not cotton white. Two problems with this ideology. Firstly, one requires a scraper to take off anywhere from 5-10 mm of a mixture of copper, sulfur, and iron oxide deposits to get to strictly limestone. How you can say you are preserving the site and at the same time have someone with an industrial hand scraper shearing away the layers of the travertines. Secondly, and most importantly, it was white to begin with. The bleaching of the limestone is naturally occurring and it will always be white if they would just let nature take its course. On top of that the travertines would grow in thickness approximately 3 cm per year due to mineral deposition. It was interesting to compare both Yellowstone National Park and Pamukkale since the geological activity is very similar with the exception that Yellowstone is a few centuries younger. It was also interesting to see the differences in how the conservation of Yellowstone is handled compared to the lack there of in Pamukkale. It is a real shame because it is a beautiful site to see as the pictures will show
you.
During our time there we wandered a bit around the travertines and noticed something quite unique that neither Terri or myself realized about limestone. It is not slippery when wet but quite the opposite. It can best be described as a substance that feels like a gripping rubber under your feet despite the fact that water is running over it. Once the tour buses left we decided to take a swim in the Cleopatra pool. It is basically a hotspring similar to Miette minus the filter. The water has everything natural in it including the wonderful salt taste (different from that of the ocean), the burning sensation that your eyes get, and the slimy algal growth. Despite that it was very relaxing and gave us a chance to test out the underwater camera. We had a lot of fun with it.
In the evening we walked down the travertines towards our hotel just admiring the beauty that is Pamukkale.
As we were walking towards our hotel we discovered a place that we were definitely not going to eat at. The gentleman was overly aggressive to try and get us to come try his restaurant and when
we ignored him I am pretty sure he swore at us in Turkish. We instead found a place with some nice music and some really good ice cream served on half a melon. We deserve a treat every now and then.
Nighty night...
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Aunt Cathie
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Wowza!
This place is absolutely beautiful. The photos are fantastic Corey! I can't wait to see them all when you get home.