Pamukkale

In Turkey, you may find Pamukkale and likely agree with me that it is an interesting spot. (I was told that Pamukkale means cotton castles.)  

In 2009, the population was estimated at about 4,000 so walking about town, it looked like your average small town. What set it apart is the “snowy” hillside in the summer temperatures. I soon learned I was looking at the pools at Pamukkale, not snow. 

From what I gathered, the calcium bicarbonate in the water fizzes like alka seltzer and bubbles up so that it flowed up and over the pools’ edge. Then this foam hardened in the air and became chalk-like. Thankfully, it did not make for a slippery surface. I walked up a slope, which was sometimes dry and sometimes flooded to my ankles. One spot looked like whipped cream.

This World Heritage Site includes the ruins of a Roman spa town called Hierapolis from 300 A.D. These ruins included a necropolis. Was this because many were unsuccessful in their quest for better health at this spa?

After four hours of wandering about, I returned down the hill. I was glad to put my shoes on again at the bottom. The white chalky substance stubbornly clung to my shoes so I gave up trying to clean them.

Minutes later, I stopped for an ice cream at an outside table with a great view of the big, white hill. It was a good place to regroup after walking on those surreal grounds and coming down that steep descent.

It amazed me how the white was just in that one area with green all around it.  (This may not be so obvious in my photos as I was concentrating on that white area.)

Here is an interesting 2021 update.

TATTOO—Journeys on My Mind by Tina Marie L. Lamb is available at Amazon and BarnesandNoble and iBooks and Audible.

Buy it. Read it. (Or listen to it.) Let me know what you think. –TMLL