Rivers of Marble

Pamukkale (pronounced pah-moo-kah-le) is a town overlooked by a series of cliffs. These cliffs are not the standard cliffs you picture, jagged rocks with tufts of grass and thistles growing on them. These cliffs are made from a type of rock called Travertine marble. Travertine marble is a very white marble that is used in many European cities to decorate buildings, make stair cases and various other building related items.

Sitting on the balcony of our hotel in Pamukkale Andrew and I can look up to see the snow white cliffs just a few kilometers from where we are standing. If it wasn't for the fact that it is around 36 degrees Celcius, you'd believe the cliffs were covered in snow.

Our first stop today was to go to the top of the cliffs and look over the "terraces" of travertine marble. At the top of the cliffs there are also the remnants of the city Hieropolis, but aside from one of the bath houses and an amphitheatre, there is not much left of the city to see.

There is actually a hot spring that flows over the cliffs and it is the minerals in the water of the spring that actually settle and form the marble surface. The hot spring pool at our hotel actually used the same spring as this one that flows over the cliffs. They are quite beautiful to look at, and the view from the top of the cliffs is spectacular. I, and a couple of other women from our tour, actually dipped our feet in the hot spring water. It was lovely.

After exploring for an hour or so we all piled back into the bus and headed for Aphrodisias, our second stop of the day. Aphrodisias was a large rich city in essentially the middle of nowhere that was named after the goddess Aphrodite. The reason the area was so rich was because the surrounding hills were full of marble and granite that could be sold all over Europe for sculptures and buildings. The remains of the city show that it contained at least a stadium, 2 baths, a temple and an amphitheatre. Being in the middle of nowhere had its benefits. The isolation made it less attractive to invaders. As such much of the remains are in very good condition.

The rest of our day was spent on a long drive to Antalya.