the day we went to pamukkale

Posted on December 4, 2014

The turquoise water in the white pools of Pamukkale has always been a major drawcard for us to visit Turkey. The travertine pools and terraces always looked so magical. We knew we had to see them.

The day we visited, the temperature was well into the 30s (Celsius). The glare of the sun was blinding as it bounced of the limestone and the heat was staggering.

In our haste to take photos and begin exploring the site, we were not concentrating on where we were walking and both stepped into a muddy, sludgy spot along the boardwalk. We probably don’t need to describe much more because everyone should know what thongs (i.e. flip-flops) in mud equals, right? An impeding ungraceful flailing of arms to steady ourselves; Le grabbing onto David, David almost losing his balance and then so forth and so forth. A scene from a black and white Charlie Chaplin film comes straight to mind as to how we must’ve looked.

After what felt like a lifetime of erratic arm movements to steady ourselves, but probably only 20 seconds in reality, we escape the mud traps. Only to then have to walk along a wooden boardwalk with what felt like glue on the soles of our feet!

Off came the footwear as we made a beeline for the travertine pools. It was a welcome relief to be able to dip our feet.

Wading through knee-deep hot spring water felt simply refreshing until we almost slip on the uneven, slimy floor of the pools. Looking around, we felt like the two most uncoordinated people on land and now in water. It didn’t bother us…. On we walked through pool after pool.

We gave up on photographing by this stage because the entire experience had become “awkward” to say the least. Us juggling our hat, sunglasses and our backpack while we tried to stay upright would just end up with our big camera going for an unwanted dip in the hot springs. It was from this experience we decided to get ourselves a really awesome compact camera for these type of situations.

The experience was slightly less magical than we envisaged but we still enjoyed our time at Pamukkale and were glad to have visited. Although the pictures we captured are hardly anything like other photos we’ve seen…. We hope the ones we have shared can give a little bit of insight into the beauty that is Pamukkale.

If you ever visit Pamukkale, there is also a swimming pool (with entrance fee) where you can swim among ancient ruins. We didn’t take any photos to share as that might’ve been a little creepy for the fellow pool-goers.

Wise Monkeys Trivia: Pamukkale translates to “cotton castle” and has an ancient city called Hierapolis built just above it. 

Hierapolis-Pamukkale was listed as a

UNESCO Heritage site in 1988.

To see the other UNESCO sites we have visited,

visit our unofficial bucket list

As with all our posts, we welcome your comments and thoughts.