Day 62, 4 September 2012, Pamukkale / Ancient Heiropolis, Turkey. Wow - what a day. Cover photo is from the northern, necropolis end of the site where a tomb has been almost submerged by the slow growth of the calciferous travertine material. Here's the guff for the history buffs.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierapolis
Today we ventured back in time again. Our host at the Dort Mevsim, Hassan, dropped us at the Southern Gate of the Pamukkale World Heritage site and we saw the water filled travertines early in the day before the 1000s of tourists arrived. Even at 8.30 am there were say 10 busloads on site. Starting early to avoid the busloads. Hmmm. The Roman ruins are fascinating, but, and we're blessed to be in this position, no where near as complete as the ruins of Jerash in Jordan. The Greco-Roman city established in the 2nd century AD has suffered several major earthquakes over the centuries and much of the site, in particular the Theatre, has been painstakingly rebuilt by archaeologists. We spent the day alternating between oohing and aahing at the fabulous snow white travertines and walking amongst the ruins. The Northern end of the site was impressive with one of the most complete necropolis areas ever uncovered. And peaceful. We could peer down into massive tombs, wander around sarcophagi, look down stairways into mound style tombs and even walk up the main street (which was once buried between 2 metres of the calciferous substance that makes up the travertines - it had to be unearthed not with a find tooth comb and an archeologists trowel, but rather jack hammers!) We walked past the Basilica Baths, where people purified themselves before entering the city (early epidemic control, Anatolian style) and also past the public latrine. The canny wee Romans were absolute masters in their use of flowing water and drains. The massive gates and arches at either end of the site were very similar in style and era to those at Jerash, and just as impressive. We would have to investigate the tomb business further, but can't figure out if the tombs on the hill overlooking the city with peace and quiet would have been more or less sought after than the ones on the main street. We think less. The ones on the main street were large, impressive and most definitely the "see and be seen" in the afterlife type of tomb. We also visited the Bath Museum. No. Not a selection of bathing apparatus from Roman times til the present day, rather, the old Bath Complex from ancient Heirapolis restored in places and now stocked in 3 major salons with Funerary items (fabulous carved marble sarcophagi), Small Finds (coins, jewellery, tomb ornaments, pottery and glass and the Theatre Finds room - full of ornate marble friezes and statues taken from the Theatre in order to preserve them. Once we'd satisfied our history lust we returned to the aptly named Antique Pool. This pool was created during one of the earthquakes of antiquity and modernised by one of the many hotels built on the site in the early 80s before the world discovered Pamukkale and everything that had been built over and around the ruins had to be demolished. Some bright spark thought to keep the Antique Pool and it is now a much welcomed watering hole/cafe/icecream shop/giftshop and off course 36 degree highly concentrated mineral swimming pool. Which is so life giving it will apparently cure just about everything - up to and including quadruple amputations. Apparently it's just like swimming about in blood-warm sparkling water. James took the plunge and swam about for almost an hour - literally swimming in history. I decided to have a completely different adventure and visited the Doctor Fish Spa also on site. Having read about this treatment somewhere down the track, I decided to give it a go. Basically for 35 lira or $20 say, I got to plunge my feet into a glorified fish tank and hundreds of little fish went on an all you can eat feeding frenzy of dead skin. Woo Hoo. I think the staff at the spa are still laughing about the crazy white chick who hooted with ticklish laughter for a good couple of minutes as I got used to the feeling. "Not Ticklish at all" said the brochure. Hah! Obviously the brochure was written by a corpse. In any event, my feet are now all brand new. We eventually reunited and dragged ourselves away from the oasis in the middle of the ruins. We went to head home via the travertine path, which is a series of interlinking pools and glistening water covered terraces that lead back to the town of Pamukkale - we could have spent a full day in this spot alone. The still pools, the rushing channels of water (where James had a sit and pretended to be a dam). The soft white calcium powder between our toes and the squillions of young, slim Russian girls posing against the stark white travertines in mini-me excuses for bikinis were mind blowing.
If there isn't a website called www.russianhottieshuntinghusbands.com, there should be.
We spent at least 2 hours making our way down the pools and eventually through town. Due to our fabulous day out which cost a grand total of 120 odd lira, we had a mere 7.35 left. With which we managed nail polish remover, nail polish and a large bag of crisps for by the pool later. Not bad for $4 and all strictly necessary - the pedicure I got at the hammam in Istanbul is a sad, sad thing of the past. It's now still broad daylight and the hordes are yet to return to our poolside haven at the hotel. Rumour has it the owner is taking us for a run to see the sunset from a local vantage point...