A Day Spent Back In Time

Thursday night at 11:30 pm I boarded a bus for a 10 hour ride to Denizili Turkey. A city in the central western part of Turkey only two hours ride from the sea. After a very pleasant ride actually on the bus, which is big for me since I am not one to enjoy distance traveling while trying to sleep. However this charter bus I took had individual TV's like on the plane, they gave free coffee and water which was a huge point for the bus in my book. I have always said that you should get a little something extra for a purchase to show gratitude. Anyway I arrived in Denizli around 9am and was helped to the Pamukkale bus which was only 30 minutes drive away. 

The sun was already up, it was about 70 degrees already and I was so ready for an adventure! I paid the 20 TL for the park entrance (its a world heritage site) and began my walk. Pamukkale is a warms springs up on a hill above the city of Pamukkale. The warm springs run down the hill and since there is a huge calcium concentration in the water, over century of time the hills side has turned white as snow. 

It was very similar to seeing a snow cap or a glacier in the summer up on the Sisters mountains really. I started my hike at the top of the hill, where lies the ancient city of Hierapolis. 
Hierapolis was founded as far back as 197-159BC... one hell of a long time ago.... The name Hierapolis means "sacred city" the North gate where I entered from starts out in the Necropolis or the graveside of the city. The large tombs and sarcophagus's both shocked and amazing me as I walked along the mile long ancient highway. Rising high and tall on either side of me where Greek and Ancient Roman style burial tombs. Some champers where even still in tacked for whole families to be placed in. The city is dedicated to the God Apollo so there are many Greek and Roman references to the God. I searched high and low to find some but since my ancient Greek and Roman skills are somewhat lack there of I couldnt find anything of significance to me. So I decided to just act like a photographer. 

The city was struck by earthquakes over the earlier years of its life and therefore was rebuilt several times. The last earthquake it seems was in the 13 hundreds. As I walked down this ancient highway I felt so at peace, maybe cause I was walking through a cemetery that was older then anything else I have seen thus far, maybe it was the warm sunshine I have been missing so much, maybe it was the sense of exploration I don't know but I it was one of the happiest moments I've had. The Necropolis goes on forever, it even leaves the roadside and continues up the hills. At first I was not sure it it was possible to actually go off the road and explore but after seeing no one around I went for it. I got up close and personal with some of the tombs, walked through family plots, and even peeked into some sarcophagus's. The part that was the most interesting was discovering Greek and/or Roman writing on the tombs and trying to imagine what it said. Now since being

a DG ment we had to know the Greek alphabet I could at least make letters out of the symbols but that was as far as my deciphering skills lead me. Some tombs where huge, bigger then an SUV while others were smaller and somewhat carved out like the one in the photo I have provided. There were no remains left in any tomb I came across and I am wondering where they went if they were preserved at all, which now that I think about it they were probably not. After walked and exploring the Necropolis you enter the temple area of Hierapolis through the Gate of Domitian. 

Which was built in 83 AD. These gate are the Northern entrance point to the temple area which was dedicated to Apollo, Pluto, and Letoia. The city was seen as a spiritual and medicinal place for two reasons, the first was that the waters were seen to have healing powers. There are so many minerals that flow through it that even today its been proven to have a level of healing effect on people with infections, arthritis and rheumatoid problems. So wealthy people from the Greek and Roman eras (and today although wealth is no longer a huge factor) came were to soak in the warm springs and be cured. The other reason is that there is a hole somewhere on the hill that releases poisonous gas. It was said to lead down to Pluto or Hades and the underworld. So people would come here to cure their aliments.This road through the city was relativly short actually and most of the architeture has been destroyed from earthquakes. It was hard to tell what was what. I did get some great photos of the damage though. It always feels sureal for me to actually walk through time like this. I always try and put myself in the era when the buildings where in their prime. I picture the people walking all around me, I try and imagine what they would have been doing, what they looked like. Its always insane for me to realize, wow this stuff was made in 190 BC and its still here. 

This was a tree in the middle of the path. Kind of a unique place for it to be. This was as I walked toward the Theater which was my favorite part. 











Just some ruins, part of Apollos temple. 

The next thing on the journey through time was the amphitheater which is still used today for this May festival the town of Pamukkale has. This theater holds over 7,000 people, still!! After this its obvious that I was dying of heat. The temp was around 100 degrees and it was only 11am. I did about one more hours worth of hiking and got to see the church of St. Peter which was just rubble scattered about. This was however up a huge hill with a ton of stairs so as you can see my top came off, and I continued the day like that. Hence the massive sunburn I am now recovering from. Either way it was nice to get down off the hill and into some water! Now I was expecting not to be able to actually sit in the water since I was told its hot, being a warm spring and all. It is warm but since the temp outside was so much hotter then the pool, the water felt nice and cool to me!I spent a good 6 hours just laying a round the pools relaxing, people watching, absorbing the good minerals (which i think really did wonders on my skin). Here are the remaining photos I wanted to add to this blog. I stayed there till 11pm and was able to watch the sun set over Pamukkale. It was one of the most memorable times of my life.