Around Turkey - Pamukkale

We arrived at the bus stop of Denizli and took a Dolmus (public taxi) to Pammukale. By the time we arrived it was 10pm and because it was winter the place we were going to stay at was closed. We went to another place who had opened for the first day for the season but they didn't have any hot water and there was no food available (we hadn't had dinner so were starving). They took us to a family members hotel which could offer us a room, some food and hot water. It wasn't very nice but by this time we were so tired we didn't care. Dinner was actually really yummy. It was like a tomatoey soup with pasta type bits in it. I really liked it. They gave us heaps of bread so we were sorted. When we went back to our room it was freezing. There was a heater but it didn't seem to do much. We decided to have showers and head straight to bed cause we were pretty tired. So we had a hot (yeah right), freezing cold shower and jumped straight into bed with lots of clothes on to try and get warm. Once we were in bed with about 6 blankets on we were ok. But we don't believe it when people tell us they have hot water!!! Not the best valentines day I have had but we decided we would just celebrate it another day.

The reason we went to Pamukkale (Cotton Castle) is because they have huge white terraces similar to what the pink and white terraces were like in NZ before they were destroyed.

The Travertines. From a distance it looks like snow.

Tectonic movement in the Menderes river basin gave rise to a number of hot spring. From one of these hot springs Pamukkale was created. The water contained large amounts of hydrogen carbonate and calcium which leads to the precipitation of calcium bi-carbonate which forms thick white layers of limestone and travertines running down the mountains like waterfalls. Terraces are formed which are like mini hot pools and also stalactites form connecting the terraces. You used to be able to bathe in the hot pools but too much use dried them up and made them dirty so now you can't.

Travertines.

Stalactites.

There are two ways you can get to the top. One is to follow the road around and the other way is to go through an entrance at the bottom and walk up them. We decided to do this and are glad we did cause it was a lot of fun. You can't walk on the travertines with shoes on so we had to go barefoot. At first this was freezing and there was actually some ice in a few of the pools but as we got higher the water got warmer so that was ok. It takes a while to walk up but we met a couple of people on the way doing the same thing and it was nice feeling the ground with our feet. The ground felt a bit like concrete to walk on.

The calcium ground that we walked up.

The steam coming off the water.

At the top.

At the top of the travertines are the ruins of Hierapolis. So once we got to the top we still had a city to explore. Hierapolis was founded in 190BC by Eumenes II, King of Pergamum. It was believed that the water was medicinal and because of this many people came here to be healed. Looking at the huge number of Sarcophagi I don't think i would have liked to put my life in their hands!

The Travertines with Hierapolis at the top.

A plan of the city.

The city changed hands many times from the Pergamum, to the Romans, Christians and Seljucks. It was also destroyed many times by earthquakes and rebuilt. It was finally abandoned in the late 1300s and in 1534 another earthquake destroyed the remains and the ruins were slowly covered with a layer of limestone until they began to be excavated in 1887.

The city has many structures including two Theaters (although there is hardly anything left of one), a Martyrium of St Philip the Apostle, an agora, a colonnaded street, the arch of domitian, a large latrine, roman baths and a huge necroplois (cemetary).

Ruined archway.

The Arch of Domitian.

Shailen in the girls toilet.

Fifth- century Victory monument.

Circular tombs.

A building only just still standing.

Two gorgeous people! LOL

Colonnaded street.

Martyrium of St Philip the Apostle.

Sarcophagus half buried in the Travertines.

The most spectacular building like in most ruined cities is the theatre that was originally built by the Emperor Hadrian (he was a busy man!). It has been renovated recently and is very beautiful. There are also two levels of stage here which is unusual.

The Theatre from a distance.

Entranceway.

On top of the Theatre.

Shailen posing like usual.

The V.I.P seats.

The stages with its two levels.

There is also an Antique Pool spa where you can swim in the warm water with ancient marble columns at your feet. Unfortunately it is quite expensive otherwise it would have been neat to do. We had a look around though and got some photos.

The Antique pool.

The other interesting place here is a sacred cave called Plutonium which is dedicated to Pluto the god of the underworld. There is a spring in this cave which gives us toxic vapours and before a grate was put in blocking the entrance people died trying to get close to it. There is a description in the lonely planet where you can find this and it says you can still hear the water bubbling. Although we tried to find it we eventually gave up which is probably why the two of us are still alive!

The Archaeology museum in what was once the Roman Baths.

We spent most of the day wandering around the city as it stretches out over quite a large area. It was a beautiful day and we sat for a while with our feet in the warm water before heading back into town.

The beautiful view.

Picture perfect day!

Shailen walking in the warm water.

Me lazy and sitting down!

From Pamukkale we were going to head to Gallipoli and Troy so we got our bags from the Hotel and made our way to the main bus station in Denizli. We went to the different bus companies but the buses that direction weren't going for about another 7 hours which would be 2am in the morning. We had a discussion with one company when he told us the bus was leaving at midnight. So we said ok the bus leaves at 12 when does it arrive. And he said "No the bus leaves at midnight, 2am". We said midnight is 12 o'clock and he was saying no 2am. So we gave up trying to explain that if you say midnight in english it is 12 o'clock and were left wondering what to do.

We actually ended up going home to Istanbul as there was a bus leaving in a couple of hours and it would cost about the same to get to Gallipoli from there as it did from Denizli. (I think at the end of the day we really just wanted a hot shower!) So we had some dinner at the bus station headed off on the bus and pulled into Istanbul to light snow at about 8 on Saturday morning. When we get home it turns out that Mum and Dad have been trying to email us for the last few days (which we hadn't checked) to tell us that there was a huge snow blizzard predicted for the weekend and they were worried we were going to get snowed in at Gallipoli or stuck on the road. So they were very happy to see us. We were lucky to get home in time because for the next couple of days we had heavy snow and had lots of fun playing in it. Shailen especially was a big kid as he had never really experienced much snow so we had snow ball fights and snow angels and had a lot of fun. We made a little snowman out of two snowballs and put him in the flower pots on the balcony looking into the apartment. He had a sock for a scarf and another one for his hat. He was so cute!!! Unforunately the snow didn't stick around long and it was a sad day when we came home to see two socks in the flower pot!!!!

View from Mum and Dad's apartment in the snow.

Me and Shailen causing trouble.

I am sure that ended up on me? I might not have been smiling if I knew that!

Making a snow angel.

Walking, well wadding up the stairs.

Mum looking cute with the stairs we walk up behind her.

Our cute little snowman!

Me and Mum.

A submarine we saw on the Bosphorus. It was the first one I have seen!

Beautiful sunset from Mum and Dad's place.

Around Turkey - Antalya

How we even got to Antalya I am not sure! Our bus driver got lost numerous times and the passengers had to tell him where to go. And about half an hour after leaving a food stop we had to turn around and go back because he had left someone behind!! Luckily this meant that we got into Antalya a little later than we would have because we still arrived at 7am.

Anyway.....
Antalya is on the Southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. It is really beautiful as it is on the water and is surrounded by mountains. Mum and Dad had been there before so told us where to stay so we got a service bus into town and then walked through the old town. There are really nice cobbled streets with cute little houses along them so it was nice walking along. We even walked through the Marble Hadrian's gate which was erected during the Roman Emperor Hadrian's reign between 117-38AD!

On the Harbor of Antalya.

Surrounded by mountains.

Hadrian's Gate.

Standing underneath Hadrian's gate.

Walking along the streets of the old city to find our accomodation.

A beautifully restored house.

Just some random ruins (this sort of thing is everywhere!)

We got to the place we were staying at and then talked to them about going to see Termessos which is an old ruined city up in the mountains and also Olympos where the flames naturally come out of the rock in a mountainside. Unfortunately this 2 places weren't very easy to get to by ourselves so we essentially had to hire a driver. We managed to bargain with them but it still cost us $120 to be driven to both places!!!!!! It seemed really expensive to us but at least we had the car and driver for the day. We decided that in winter it is better to go in a group because then you have more people to share the cost between. With just the two of us it was pretty expensive.

So we headed off that morning up into the mountains to Termessos. We were quite glad of the car as the city is built at an altitude of more than 1000 meters up in the Taurus Mountains. The Pisidian people were prone to battling and after they successfully fought off Alexandra the Great the Roman's left them to be independent. Termessos is one of the best preserved archeological sites in Turkey so it was defiantly worth seeing. Termessos has a variety of buildings including baths, churches, houses and so on.

This was once the entrance to the Artemis-Hadrian Temple.

More ruins. Not too sure what this building was.

Remains of an entrance way.

Tomb in the hillside.

More rock cut tombs.

We saw this carved into the rock near the tomb of Alcetas.

The cisterns where the water was stored.

Probably the most spectacular is the theatre. Unfortunately due to earthquakes it has been damaged but the shape has held and you can see that it would have once been an experience in its time. Another thing that makes this theatre so stunning is the view. It is on the side of a mountain so you can see all around in each direction for miles. We sat on the top and had lunch here looking out. And it starting snowing!! Only lightly but it was snowing!

What is left of the theatre.

The stunning views.

Shailen on top of the world.

We spent quite a few hours looking around Termessos as it is spread over a large area. We then made our way past the Sarcophagi up to the top of the mountain. Now we aren't just talking about a few Sarcophagi we are talking about thousands of them all down the mountainside and due to earthquakes they are just thrown all over the place. It was a crazy sight to see.

Just a few of the thousands of Sarcophagi.

Some of them have inscriptions on them.

We made our way back down and drove the couple of hours to Olympos. The other good thing about having a driver is that he knew where these places were. I wouldn't like to try and find them myself because they are out in the middle of nowhere!

Olympos is where the Olympic flame originated from. There is a legend behind this flame burning eternally from the mountain side and it goes like this.

The Chimera.

You can see the flames all over the hillside.

The King of Ephyra’s son Hippones kills his brother Belleros during a battle party and takes the name Bellerophontes which means “the one who ate Bellarus”. The Ephyra Kingdom sends Bellerophontes into exile and he takes refuge behind the king of Argos. The King of Argos considers killing someone that took refuge behind him as a lack of self-respect so he sends Bellerophontes to the Lycian Kingdom.
The King of Lycia also doesn’t like the idea of killing this young man because of the miserable situation he is in and wants him to fight with the monster Chimera living in the Mountain Olypos whose head is a lion’s, body is a goat, tail is a snake’s and who scatters flame from his mouth. Bellerophontes rides his winged horse Pegassos to fight with Chimera. Chimera attacks and Pegassos goes up into the sky. While coming down Bellerophontes hits Chimera with his lance and inters him to the underground but chimera goes on scattering flame.
The myth has been told in Anatollia for thousands of years. According to the myth the eternal flame is the flame coming from Chimera’s mouth.
To celebrate Bellerophontes victory the people of Olypos arranges a race. The athletes burn their torches with Chimera’s sacred flame and run down to the Olypos City. This is the first Olypic Games in Anatolia. In time many different brances of sport are added to this rice and the Olympic torch is the symbol of the eternal flame of Chimera’s flame today. (It has been translated from Turkish so sorry if the English is a little bad).

We arrived there just as it was beginning to get dark which was good cause we could see the flames in the light and dark. Shailen and I really liked sitting watching the flames burning and if it wasn't for our driver waiting for us down below we could have stayed there a lot longer. Although it is in the middle of nowhere we defiantly think it is worth going to.

Me showing off my amazing powers.

And of course Shailen copying me! LOL

By this point we were pretty tired so we headed back to town, managed to find some cheap food, had a "hot" (COLD) shower and crashed into bed.

Antalya's clock tower.

We decided the next day to visit Aspendos another ruined city that was founded in 1000 BC by the Greeks.

Aspendos Bridge.

The beautiful view from the bridge.

Although there are the ruins of a basilica, agora and nymphaeum the most spectacular are the theatre and the Roman aqueduct.

The remains of the aqueduct which runs for 15km.

The theatre was built during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-80 AD). In the early 1930's Ataturk himself decided it was to be restored and there are still events held there. It fits an audience of 10,000 people and if there was something on while we were there we would have defiantly gone because it would be such an experience.

The outside of the theatre.

The detail above the stage.

Half of the Theatre beautifully restored.

In the passageway behind the seats.

Shailen making himself cozy on a stone bench.

Looking down on the Theatre from Theatre hill.

Unfortunately there wasn't but maybe another time. We spent the day getting lost on the little paths on top of the hill and then made our way back to Antalya.

More ruins of Aspendos.

We had brought bus tickets to our next destination Pammukale which was only a few hours away. So we jumped on the bus and headed off.