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We left Sirince going east driving to Pamukkale, about 200km away. We had decided we could take a short cut by taking a 'minor road' from the village which saved us about 40km. The 'road' quickly descended in to a track and the navigators were soon disagreeing if this was the right road. When we came across one very large pot hole, we decided to turn back. We made it back to the village and sought local advice - yes we were on the right road and yes it is a very bad road!
We arrived in Pamukkale around lunch time and found hotels to stay in. Then it was off to see the towns highlights - a cliff covered with travertines. The travertines are calcium carbonate deposits that come from a hot spring on top of the cliffs. As the water flows down, it deposits the Calcium Carbonate causing the whole area to go white. Pamukkale means cotton castle in Turkish and that is what it looks like from afar or more like a set of ski slope set in the midst of vegetation.
We walked up the path in the cliffs - without shoes as the hot water was trickling over the white rock. There were a series of pools on the slope that slowed the water flow down - it was possible to bathe in these. The site looks absolutely surreal and made even more so by the hordes of Russian and Chinese tourists dressed in decidedly dodgy swim wear.
We made our way to the top and then had a look round the rest of the site. The place has been famous since ancient times and there are the ruins of the Roman city of Hierapolis on top of the cliffs. We decided to take in a few of the ruins - apart from Ken who decided that allure of bathing in the 'Antique pool' (formed by the natural spring) with lots of large Russian ladies was too much to resist.
After Ephesus, the ruins were not that impressive. We decided to look at the tomb and church of St Phillippe. When we made it up to the site, it was virtually deserted apart from 40 or so people all dressed in white, with red headwear standing in a circle joined by red ribbon with one of them chanting something in a language I could not recognise. Most weird!
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