After a couple of chilled out days in Selcuk, we hit the road again. We wanted to visit a place called Pamukkale, home to the ruins of Hierapolis and the travertines. The travertines are pools and waterfalls created by warm springs bubbling up from the earth. The water is calcium-rich, coating everything over time with a smooth, white calcium layer. It looks like snow from a distance, and up close it looks like water that has been frozen solid, smooth for the most part but with small ridges from the endless trickling of the water. The only other place I’ve seen anything like it is inside of a cave.

The town of Pamukkale is even smaller than Selcuk. So we went from three big cities (London, Amsterdam, and Istanbul) to a small town (Selcuk) to a smaller town. When we left Selcuk it was pouring down rain, and the weather must have followed us because it was pouring when we arrived in Pamukkale too. We were only planning on staying one night there, but since everything we wanted to do was outside, we decided to stay two nights.

The place we stayed was really nice too, called the Venus. They had free wireless internet in the lobby and the staff were really cool. The rain had the effect of making the temperature drop dramatically, and for the first time in Turkey it was pretty cold outside.

The next day we hit the travertines and the ruins of Hierapolis. Apparently they built some hotels above the springs during the first big tourism boom in Turkey, and they pretty much destroyed the fragile environment. They built fake pools for the springwater to collect in so tourists could swim in it. There are pictures of the way they used to be all over the brochures and in the guidebooks, but they look nothing like this today. They are still neat and unique, but nothing like they once were.

I think this is an example of tourism booming too fast in a place that isn’t equipped to handle it. The local community was so excited about the new revenue streaming into their economy that they exploited it at the expense of the environment. Even after all of the damage done to the travertines, they still don’t take care of them like they should. You can walk up one side of the mountain, and they only ask that you take off your shoes.

I don’t mean to get on a soapbox or anything, but I just think it’s a shame. We were really excited to see this unique environment and it was a bit of a letdown.

The ruins, on the other hand, were really neat. They are much more spread out than the ones at Ephesus, and they are contained within a national park. The best way to explore them is to just take your time wandering around the site, examining the structures you think are interesting or even taking to the hills. We found a small footpath heading up into the surrounding hills, so we walked up there and ended up going by old tombs set dramatically in the hillside.

We were away from all of the tour groups and buses, and were able to better imagine what everything might have looked like a thousand years ago. The theater was spectacular, much steeper than the one at Ephesus. Not as well preserved, but it was interesting to see a slightly different design.

One full day is enough to explore the travertines and the ruins of Hierapolis, so the next day we left Pamukkale for Fethiye and the Mediterranean.