Tour of Turkey

Day 13:  Selcuk

Since we got here so early yesterday and did so much, we decided to take a day trip to Pamukkale.  The pictures here won't do it justice, but it was a very interesting place on a lot of levels.  Because of the geological formations here, the ancient Greeks (then Romans) build a holy city just above them, called Heiropolis.  The hot springs and sand were said to have healing properties, so there were healers here, shrines to the gods, and a large necropolis (the largest in the area).

Ancient Bath House (Thermal Spa)

Theater

Heiropolis was built this close to the springs

So these hot springs come from the earth with a high concentration
of calcium, which leaves deposits of white all over.

And created terraces of pools.

We could even walk through them.

See, Jason was really there, too.

The terraces reminded us of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone, except all in white.  In Mammoth Hot Springs, the water had high concentrations of Sulfur, creating the cool colors (and the bad smell).  In Pamukkale, it's all calcium, so no odor and all white, which makes it difficult to photograph for sure.

When we were done, we drove the 2.5 hours back to Selcuk.  A long drive, but the landscape was lovely.

Mom and Jade played chess on the roof deck while I had a bit of a rest, then we decided to head into Kusadasi (koosh-adasi) for dinner.  We ate at a fancy fish place where we were brought into the kitchen to choose our fish, they were all layed out on the ice and we got to pick the piece we wanted for dinner.  It was all so fresh and so tasty, and the view was lovely.

View #1 from our table

View #2 from our table

Filleting our fish table side

After dinner, we walked down the marina to an outdoor cafe with live music for one drink and then headed home.  Tomorrow we are going to see family, so we will likely not post until the following day, when we head back to Istanbul to close out this amazing trip.