These three sites are all very close to the city of Denizli, where there is good bus connectivity to south-western Turkey and even good overnight train service with İstanbul. Pamukkale has a wide range of housing options.
Pamukkale, which means "Cotton-Castle" in Turkish, is a large flowstone formation created by heavily mineralized springs flowing from a hillside. The hillside is covered with bright white smoothly flowing stone, an enormous version of what you would normally find in a cave. The formations are called travertines.
Hieropolis is a Roman-built city adjacent to Pamukkale. It was built there because of the springs. This was one luxurious spa back in the day!
Laodicea is a Greek-Roman city a few kilometers away. Unlike Hieropolis, Ephesus, and many sites, it is almost entirely unrestored, so you can get the feeling of the Indiana Jones experience.
Here's a view of Pamukkale from part-way up. The flowstone is extremely white. It's made of calcium carbonate.
The springs are just over the crest of the hill, near the trees and beyond.
Pamukkale had become heavily commercialized, and motels lined the crest of the formation. People ran around on the flowstone in shoes, tracking dirt everywhere and tearing up the travertine formations.
Pamukkale became a national park a number of years ago and the motels were closed and demolished. You can go on the flowstone, but you have to remove your shoes at the ticket booth. The stone is very sharp — you have to walk gently unless you have very tough feet.
The water keeps flowing down over the stone, gathering in a number of pools. Some natural, some man-made.
They are slowly restoring Pamukkale to an all-natural state.
See? Barefoot!
The formation has a very abrupt edge. It looks very strange, whether you are on the formation looking out, or looking at it from a distance.
A closer view of the flowstone.
Lots of people visit!
The water flows over the stone in thin sheets, and also gathers in channels. The water channels eventually lead through the village of Pamukkale, just out of view to the right.
Pamukkale is lighted at night, and you can visit at any time of day or night.
From the terrace of a restaurant in Pamukkale village, the flowstone looks like a ski area at night.
The pictures at Pamukkale were from a late afternoon visit. Then the below pictures of Hieropolis were taken during and after sunset. This picture is later that evening, getting dinner back in the village.
The Romans were very interested in warm mineral springs, and the city of Hieropolis was built just above the flowstone formations. This is the theatre at sunset.
The city was quite large — this is looking down the main avenue joining the various districts.
Some of the public baths and latrines along the main avenue.
In the foreground is a small Christian chapel built into a major gate along the main avenue.
Some of the public baths and latrines are just beyond it.
In the distance, behind the tree, is the next major gate along the main avenue.
Laodicea is along the road from Denizli to Pamukkale. It's maybe 10 kilometers from Pamukkale to Laodicea, then another 5 kilometers to Denizli. There are frequent dolmuşlar (minibuses) along the road.
You pay based on how far you are going in a dolmuş. Tell the driver that you want to get out at Laodicea, and he will bill you accordingly and let you out at the right spot along the highway. From there it's maybe a kilometer back a side road to Laodicea.
If you're using GPS, the central agora is at:
UTM 35S 0685565 4189734
Unlike many other historical sites, Laodicea is almost entirely unrestored. And, there are no signs explaining what's what.
The white flowstone at Pamukkale is visible in the distance here.
On the edge of the agora. There are other visitors, but not many.
Some people, especially from the U.S., want to visit all seven of the churches to whom The Revelation of Saint John the Divine was specifically addressed. Or as they're more dramatically called, the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse. Laodicea is one of them. Of course, back then, "church" referred to a community and not to a structure. Don't go to Laodicea expecting to see the ruins of an enormous church building!
Here is the theatre — compare that to the much more restored one at Ephesus.
Pamukkale is again visible in the distance.
A heavy arch — just barely hanging in there!
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| © Bob Cromwell Sep 2010. Created with /bin/vi and ImageMagick, hosted on OpenBSD with Apache. Root password available here, privacy policy here. |
