BeBe's Corner: Pamukkale

On the Cotton Castle, as the Turks call Pamukkale

Pamukkale means cotton castle in Turkish.

The city has hot springs that have healing minerals. We were not allowed to wear shoes on the castle.

One of the Pamukkale pools

The spring waters have some mineral called calcium or something that cause terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. The terraces are called travertines. I found this in my Pamukkale journal book that I bought in the souvenir shop.

The pools go down the mountainside

We went to 15 of the 17 pools that terrace down the mountainside. The pools were not hot. The water cools off as it is carried to the pools. These pools are knee deep. The bottom is like squishy stuff that feels and looks like ice cream but is not cold like ice cream.

Not snow.

The guide said that some 5 star hotels are using and have diverted some of the spring waters. They have used so much that Pamukkale will no longer exist in 150 years. It will all be dried up by then.

Near lowest pool at Pamukkale. See valley and mountains in background.

Swimming in Cleopatra's Pool

Standing on broken
column in Cleopatra's Pool

We also went to Cleopatra's pool which is supposed to make you young and keeps your skin from wrinkling. Mark Anthony gave this pool to Cleopatra as a wedding gift. We swam though the water , but they had a rule that you had to be 16 to go to the deep end even though Zach went to the other side. They had broken up columns in the pool.

A toppled column in Cleopatra's Pool

I did not know much about Mark Antony or Cleopatra so Tutu explained about them. Cleopatra was the queen or pharaoh of Egypt but she really wasn't Egyptian. The real Egyptians had died long before the Ptolemy family came to Egypt. The first Ptolemy was a general with Alexander the Great and he was Macedonian, not Egyptian. So really Cleopatra was Macedonian. She was very short and skinny and had a big nose. Mark Antony was Roman. His name was Marcus Antonius but people called him Mark Antony. He is the one who said, "Friends, Romans, countrymen. Lend me your ears" according to a Shakespeare play. Mark Antony and Cleopatra killed themselves in Egypt rather than be captured by the Romans.

One of the hot spring sources at
Cleopatra's Pool

There were also lots of ruins of the ancient city of Hierapolis all around Pamukkale. It is also spelled Heropolis. The guide said it was named after the Greek goddess Hera. We saw the theater and a big museum and some roads and a lot of buildings. But after seeing Ephesus we didn't want to look at any more ancient ruins.