Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Pamukkale

It's hard to describe what makes Pamukkale so magical.

From a distance... God is watching us.

No, wait. Sorry. Wrong song.

From a distance, Pamukkale just looks like a gray mass of rock - strangely off color from the surrounding landscape, but still nothing particularly distinctive.

As you get closer, it continues to look like... A gray mass of rock.

You get to the parking lot, look up, and see the top of the hill a few hundred feet above you. "Do I really have to walk all the way up that?" you ask yourself, already tired from a long day of sitting.

You start walking up the slope, and then there's a guard telling you to remove your shoes. Now barefoot, you step across a narrow channel, and then you're standing in water. Warm, wonderfully comfortable water that feels good on your feet. And the ground and sides of the hill are white. Very white.




From this point on, the path up the hill is a cross between a waterfall and a very shallow river. And you're walking straight up it.


As you ascend, you start seeing the famous travertine pools, filled with pale blue water. You can walk in them, but the ground can be a bit rough on your bare feet, so it's best to just enjoy the view after you've taken a few snapshots. To your left you can see the town and the surrounding countryside.





And at some point as you make your way up, you think this might one of the coolest things you've ever done.

It takes some time to reach the top, but it's still over too soon.

Fortunately, after you've explored the ancient ruins located at the top of the hill (more on that in a later post), you still have the journey down to look forward to.

In the meantime, you watch the sun set over the pools, in awe of the natural beauty around you.








On the way down, you hear a sound floating up to you from the village below - the evening call to prayer. You pause. You listen to the ancient prayer, and you see the beautiful white landscape around you in the fading light of dusk and the last rays of the sun on the horizon, and you feel the warm water at your feet - and you realize that this is one of those rare moments of perfect and transcendent beauty. Something that can't be captured in photographs - or with words.




7 comments:

  1. You've done a totally awesome job of this blog. Gorgeous pictures and great narrative...now I really, really want to visit this place. I'm wondering what kind of camera you used?

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  2. Hey, thanks for the kind words! The camera I've been using is a Nikon D90.

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  3. I love the pictures. You took some great ones especially the sunset ones. It's interesting that the water isn't visible except in the pools, even though the travertine is covered with water (I presume, since you are walking in water). Amazing place and wonderful descriptions. The picture of Aunt and Niece is nice too.

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  4. Sorry my phone completely died.

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  5. Tim- looks cool. Did not see that when we were there, but there is a lot to see in Turkey and we would love to go back...

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  6. Beautiful post! Love the pictures! I think Turkey is now one of the top places on my list of countries I want to get to someday. :)

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  7. I was going to ask where you were exactly, but I figured it out. The view is breathtaking. Will you take me to visit soon?

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