There is no direct flight from Cappadocia/Kayseri to Pamukkale/Denizli. Cappadocia to Pamukkale takes over 11 hours by bus, and it is an overnight bus with stops and non-reclining chairs. It is a strange situation considering Cappadocia and Pamukkale are both popular tourist spots in Turkey. The best way to connect the two touristy spots is by an indirect flight via Istanbul. The driver picked us up in a very spacious Mercedes Benz van, the seating reminded me of limousines pickup when I traveled for business ages ago. There was a beautiful sunset, on a clear sky with cumulus clouds. At sunset, the clouds were dotted with shiny golden borders and they looked like small islands spreaded around a calm lake.
Pamukkale, the Cotton Castle, has a completely different vibe than Cappadocia. Cappadocia reminds us of ruggedness and the history of persecution and hardship at an altitude of 1100 meters. Pamukkale comes across as a relaxed rural village with green plains and mountains at the horizons. It has a calming effect. After an hour, we arrived at the Cotton House and were ready to explore the next morning.
Ruins
Turkey has a rich history. Do you know that Troy, the Greek Myth of the Trojan war, is in modern-day Turkey? There are quite a number of ruins. We visited two of them while in Pamukkale : the Hierapolis-Pamukkale and the Aphrodisias, both UNESCO heritage sites dated in 2nd and 3rd BC. If ruins are not your cup of tea, it can be more interesting if you ponder what to expect to have a glimpse of their livelihood over thousands of years ago. What would be the same? What would be the difference? What has survived? What has become unrecognizable? How much damage was a result of nature or a result of war? Why would the city be abandoned?
The Hierapolis ruins, dated 2nd century BC and abandoned in the 14th century, had most of the items one can think of for a typical city – the tombs/cemetery area outside of the city, the city gates, the gathering places for religion, i.e. the Cathedral, the city plaza for people to gather, and for other entertainment i.e. the Theatre. As we entered the city, there were public latrines. In those days, people sat next to each other on a bench-like setup to take care of their business and without a good sewage system, you could imagine the pungent smell around the area. It was rather understandable that public baths (hamam) were also nearby. The Cathedral, the city plaza were much destroyed, and hardly recognizable. As we walked up, we went to a place for people to worship where the bulls were gassed to death, and any surviving priests from the fumes were to enter into the “holy” place of Pluto, the god of death. If the people were coming to watch an event in the theater, the capacity and the structural design of the theater were not that different from the modern day theater. However, it was apparent that the evolution has brought up more comfort than even the royal families back then. Ha, we only need to live long enough to experience the luxury of today’s billionaires.
With another day to spare, we arranged to have a taxi to take us to Afrodisias ancient city dated in the Greek Hellenistic periods (~1st century). The Aphrodisias ancient city is slightly over an hour of highway drive from Pamukkale. We passed by a few cities and the Mount Honaz before arriving at the entrance of the ancient city. Aphrodisias has been better preserved than Hierapolis ruins and more effort to reconstruct this ancient city, once populated with over 10,000 people. The temple of Aphrodisias has beautiful pillars, carvings and decorations that have survived close to two thousand years of battles and empires. A bit beyond the stadium, there was a nearby stadium, with a bit less capacity than the theater in Hierapolis. It has been quite well preserved. Walking on, there was the Hadronic Hamam, which has become hardly recognizable after all these centuries. Next to the Hamam, there has been the reconstruction of the city park, with a 170m long pool and a lot of spaces mirroring the modern park. Passing the city park, it opened up a trail that looks more like a hiking trail before reaching the theater. The theater is well preserved, with smaller capacity and better seating areas, including a front row that has more comfortable chairs and offers the best seating. Seemingly, this theater served as the entertainment center for the higher classes, with its own Hamam. I imagine that the nobles came here to relax and socialize in the Hamam before entering the theater for the show. We searched for the Sebasteion which had an eye-catching building with different sculptures. What seems very interesting is that the sculptures on the top tiers are ruling families, while the gods and goddesses sculptures occupy the middle tiers below the top tiers. Does it imply the ruling families believed that they were above the gods and goddesses? Closer to the entrance/exit, there stands the museum with a good collection of Greek sculptures, and artifacts evacuated from the ancient city.
Thermal Pools & the Pamukkale travertines
The gift shops and cafes awaited at the end of the Hierapolis ruins.
Making it special is the presence of an antique pool, also named Cleopatra pool. Rumored with its healing effect, the pool has been open for the public to swim for a fee. We sat next to the antique pool, enjoying kebabs and salad for lunch. The pool had clear and turquoise water, with natural rocks among them, and it was very inviting to take a dip. Some called the antique pool as the Cleopatra pool with the rumor that the queen had swum in, over two thousand years ago! It was so comfortable and relaxing to soak in it, we walked, swam and rested on the rocks, and appreciated some Roman-style pillars lying randomly in the pool. Before we knew it, we were already in the water for an hour, and our hands became wrinkly. It was an experience you don’t want to miss.
Walking another 100 meters, it started the famous Pamukkale travertines and thermal pools. The travertines looked like a hardened ski slope. The thermal pools were formed over time when a spring with a high content of dissolved calcium bicarbonate cascaded over the edge of the cliff, which cooled and hardened leaving calcium deposits. They became mini natural pools, shelves and ridges with beautiful pale bluish color, and these pools stacked above each other. We had to walk on foot to avoid further erosion or damage to this Hierapolis-Pamukkale – UNESCO World Heritage Centre. If the thermal water were warm and inviting, the path to it was covered with gravels, slippery travertines, and was prickly to the feet. The north entrance of the pool is at the top. Slowly, we walked the distance of 2km, appreciating the variety of many thermal pools and got to the south exit. Just outside of the south exit is the Pamukkale town center with a single street of restaurants, with a number of eateries all enthusiastic to invite tourists in their restaurants.
Tourists can probably cover the highlights of Pamukkale in a day. We really enjoyed our longer stays to slow down our pace, visited both Hierapolis and Aphrodisias ruins, enjoyed the antique pool, had the prickly “feet-on” experience in walking on the thermal pools, and visited different cafes on that single street .
Spa
It has taken me decades of traveling, to realize that Spa was among the best things to do on the last day of any trip. The only thing that may be better than that would be a combined Turkish bath and spa experience where your party was the only customers.
And we did just that to indulge in the timeless bond of relaxation and rejuvenation with a Turkish bath and spa experience.
It is a memory that every mother-daughter duo would cherish and nothing can take this away.
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