Pamukkale

A last minute switch brought us to the town of Pamukkale. I didn't think we were going to get out to see the famous white travertines but we decided to stop over on the way to Kas. The travertines themselves really are just a shadow of their former selves. They have pretty much all but dried up except for a few man made one which they have no opened for public swimming so I guess they are trying to wreck them as well. It's funny to see the picture on all the postcards and all the posters. It doesn't even resemble anything like what it actually is today. I'm sure the photo was taken in 1970 and they have just ran with it. Above the white travertines are the ancient ruins of Hierapolis which more than made lacking postcard photos. You would think that the best place to find ancient roman ruins would be in Rome, but no, it's in Turkey funnily enough. They are on such as huge scale and are in such good condition, that it almost puts the Italian ones to shame. You can see everything from the theatre, to where they went to the toilet during the show. We decided to venture up to the top of the hill to check out the ruins a little more in depth and I'm glad we did. We were the only ones there as no one else could be bothered to walk up the hill in 40*C heat. We just sat at the top of the hill for a while looking down on the former town. A very nice way to spend an afternoon.