Saturday, August 24, 2013

Bursa to Denizli (Pamukkale )

A long driving day today- approx 700 km.
We drove south and visited many ruins.
The first stop was Sardis to visit the ruins of the Temple of Artemis- 700BC. 



The Roman ruins show a little town. The above pic is the Gymnasium- school. The ruins were a little reminiscent of Pompeii- the rows of shops etc.
The temperature here was about 34 degrees so very hot in the sun.
From here we headed to Hieropolis. There are 5km of ruins here.
The area is considered holy ground due to the various minerals found in the water which they believed had great healing powers. 
The white " cotton castle" limestone terraces are a feature of this town - Pamukkale. The scallop-shell basins are filled with the warm mineral waters.




We arrived at our local hotel where I proceeded to head directly to the outdoor COOL swimming pool to recover from the day's heat. I was not tempted to try the warm spa pools. 
After dinner we walked down to the local village which was alive with locals enjoying their Saturday night. 
The walk down in the dark was made more memorable by the call to prayer which echoed all around us. We find it a fascinating and wonderful thing to hear- five times a day. 

On our return a wedding was in full swing' so we spent a little while enjoying the traditional music before heading off to bed. 
A good day.




1 comment:

  1. Some great photos of the ruins Michele. Loving the blog thus far

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