Dear family and friends of Shiffy and Benny, These trip reports and wonderful photos are sent by Shiffy and Benny from Internet Cafes whenever the opportunity presents itself. Not always the computer systems and keyboards out there in the Turkish countryside understand English very well...We all thank Shiffy and Benny for taking their time to share their wonderful experiences and adventures with us. |
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Tuesday and Wednesday, October 11 and 12, 2005 - Leaving the Coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Heading Inland Toward Pamukkale, the Wonder of Pamukkale, What is All That White? Waking Up to the Sound of Drums and back to explore Pamukkale during the day, HierapolisTuesday, October 11 We are leaving Fethiye and the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The north coast of the Mediterranean Sea is very different from the coast in Israel. We drove from Anatalya to Fethiye, and the coast along all the charming cities that we passed is rugged, backed by the soaring Taurus Mountain. There are many bays and small islands along the coast and the beaches have rocks, no sand. The water is very calm due to all the bays. There was no wind and all the sailboats were using their engines. The cities are on the hillside and new modern buildings are mingled with old ruins. There are so many old ruins in this country and so much of it has not been excavated or preserved, you just walk by it in every city that we visited. We are now heading inland, toward Pamukkale. Five hours ride, the bus is climbing up mountains, passing many towns, it rained most of the way. We arrives at Pamukkale. Few pension owners are waiting at the bus station, everyone is trying to convince you to go to their place. They all reduced their prices by 50%, due to the end of the season. They all offer 10 liras per person. We will go to Aspawa Pension; he has a bathtub in the bathroom!!! All the pensions here have swimming pools. After a quick cup of tea we were ready to explore the wonder of Pamukkale. It is already 5:30 in the afternoon, but the site is opened 24 hours. We look up, looks like we are at a ski resort. What is all that white? I will write more details about Pamukkale and Heirapolis tomorrow. On top, we stopped at the Antique Pool, a place that promises cure for all diseases. It was getting dark, for the local people, it was time to break the Ramazan fast, and they invited us to join them for a taste of Pide. Time to head back home. We assumed that if a place were opened 24 hours, there would be light. On the way up, we saw large lamps along the way. Don't assume anything here!!! It was very dark and there was no light. We were the only people on the mountain. Around us there are pools of white calcium deposits and a long way down. What if someone fall or slips on the slippery surface? Oh well, we walked step after step, very carefully, bare feet in the water, I followed Benny, and somehow we made it down. We will be back in the morning. Pamukkale - Wednesday October 12 We woke up at 3:45 am to the sounds of drums and yelling people, a wake up call to get up and eat before sunrise. Much commotion in the town, we hear cars, motorcycles, people are talking, getting up in our pension and the drums woke up the roosters, and they started their calls and later the dogs, and the whole town is gathering to eat before sunrise. We try to go back to sleep. We have a busy day ahead of us; we are going to explore Pamukkale and the city of Hierapolis, the 2200-year-old city that was built above Pamukkale, 1840 meter high on top of the mountain, overlooking a beautiful valley. Pamukkale means “cotton castle”, and the name suites the place. When you look up at Pamukkale, you might think that you are at a sky resort, but it is warm and there are no ski lifts. You only see white mountain slopes that shine in the morning sun. What are these white mountains with warm springs running down the slops? Being an earthquake region, the area had a lot of underground activities that created broken earth layers that contain various minerals. The way that I understood it is as follows: the water source contains a lot of carbodioxide (co2) and calcium (Ca). The carbodioxide causes the water to come up to the surface. Upon contact with the air, the carbodioxide evaporates and the calcium penetrates the surface of the ground, creating a white surface. The calcium form shelves, pools and stalactites. Few concrete pools were built along the hillside, to capture the mineral water. Over the years, the pools were covered with the white calcium formations. There are also some natural pools that were created over cliffs with beautiful stalactites and stalagmites (netifim ve zkifim in Hebrew). The water also contains aluminum and sulfur. You must remove your shoes when walking on the surface in order to protect the calcium cover. You can walk in the warm water or you can walk on the side, on the dry calcium formation, which can be rough on the feet. It is an amazing experience. Walking up the hill in the warm running water, looking down at the clear blue pools, looking up at the running spring, looking around at the stalactites, looking down at the beautiful calcium formations on the ground, looking all the way down at the rich valley and finally reaching the top, where you can put your shoes on and join the many tourists in exploring the city of Hierapolis. The city was built by Pergamon King in 190 BC, who named it after the wife of the founder of Pergamon, Hiera. It was built as a spa city to take advantage of the healing power of the water. It was ruined by numerous earthquakes, but was rebuilt because of the special gifts of the location. It was rebuilt by the Romans, and was most famous during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. It was called the Leader of the East during that time. Many of the ruins today are from that period. There is a spectacular Roman theatre that sits 12,000 spectators. It is well preserved with special artistic work. We walked up to the top of the mountain where we visited the extraordinary octagonal Martyrium of St. Phillip the Apostle. It is a very important place for the Christians. There are colonnaded streets, large monumental archways and gates, market place or Agora, even a very interesting latrine with two cannels cut into the floor; one to carry away the sewage and the other for fresh water. After the break of the Roman Empire, in 395 AD, Hierapolis fell into the hands of the Byzantines, who continued the development of the city. Constatine made Hierapolis the capital of some parts of this region. Many temples were built as healing places and the priests used to treat patients with the mineral water. It was a place where kings, councils and philosophers used to come to enjoy themselves. At times there was a mix of pagan, Roman, large Jewish community and an early Christian congregation and was known as a center for health, religion and art. After the 1334 earthquake, the town was deserted and was not rebuilt since. We spent about five hours walking though the streets of old Hierapolis, which sprawl over a wide area, and were curious to learn more about the Jewish community that lived here. Walking around, I took some time admiring the many ants that were very busy carrying large weeds, larger than their own bodies. I was watching the ants thinking that we have something in common, me and my heavy backpack. I took one photo of the ants. Up on top there is one large mineral pool. Inside the pool are old columns and other antiquities from the area. The contents of the water is in one of the photos that I took and it claimed to cure so many diseases such as coroner disease, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, allergies, skin diseases, and more. Many tourist buses stop here and we saw people soaking in the pool. We heard German, French, Russian and Japanese, no English that day. Coming down, back to our pension, we took our shoes off to walk though the white travertines of Pamukkale. This time there was a mob of tourists there. All the tour buses that come here for a day trip stop here. Some people cover themselves with the white calcium. We walked down, making our way in the crowd, remembering how last night we were the only ones on the mountain, trying to get down in the dark. Back to main page and index of daily reports |
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The text above was written in the form of Email trip reports by Shiffy and Benny and arranged for web publishing by their friend Amnon with only minimal amount of editting...
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