We drove all morning and just before arriving at Pamukkale we called into yet another World Heritage Site with two totally different points of interest. The first of these was white terraces of minerals left by flowing water. These terraces were 2,700m long, 600m wide and 160m high. We can only imagine that these terraces are similar to the Pink and White Terraces in NZ which disappeared after a violent earthquake near the end of the 19th century (and only this year were discovered at the bottom of a lake). At the moment people are allowed to wander out onto the site and bath in the pools however Bruce suspects this may be stopped in the near future to limit damage to the terraces and injuries to people.

The 2nd point of interest was the ancient city of Hierapolis built on top of the “white castle”. Building started in the 3rd century BC by the Phyrgians and it was initially a thermal spa later evolving into a healing centre. As with all of these early cities it has been occupied by different groups – Romans, Christians, Byzantines and probably others. Over the centuries it had been destroyed by earthquakes with the final one occuring in the 16th century after which the city was abandoned. The city contains one of the best preserved necropoli in Turkey spanning a 2km stretch of ancient road.

During our travels today we passed many fields of poppies which are grown to provide opium for medicinal purposes. The fields are registered and under strict control by the central government. We also noticed many instances of women tending (weeding or cultivating) the fields. It looks like it is mainly a task for women. The men appear to be spending a lot of time in the towns meeting together, drinking tea or raki and playing backgammon or okey (played with tiles and looks similar to mahjong).

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that had a statue of Hodja. Hodja is always shown sitting backwards on a donkey. He is a satirical sufi figure believed to have lived in the 13th century. He is a humorous philosopher remembered for his stories and anecdotes.