Pamukkale

Literally translated Pamukkale means “cotton castle” and is a UNESCO Heritage listed site. This is one of nature’s beautiful creations, formed over millions of years. Sadly, two things happened since 1994 (my last visit) … first of all there was a hotel at the top that, long story short, was redirecting the hot springs into its pools and then once humans had wallowed in them, pumped the dirty water back out over the limestone pools which slowly turned them black. Fortunately, the government took action – had the hotel demolished in 1997 and set about cleaning the pools.

Unfortunately, the second thing that happened is that someone decided that if 6,000m2 of terraces and pools was amazing, how much better would 26,000m2 be? They then set about redirecting the hot water springs to cover the larger area, only to find that there was now insufficient water to keep the whole area covered with the limestone deposits and the pools full. So … sometimes when you visit, the stunning, natural pools that made Pamukkale famous are empty as the water is being directed to the new areas. Luckily for us, this was not the case but in my opinion they have ruined it. The larger area is just hills covered in the white deposits – there are none of the beautiful pools that nature had created over millions of years.

For those that haven’t seen it before, you would still find it beautiful now (provided the water is flowing in the original pools), however having been fortunate enough to have seen it previously, it was disappointing and sad to see what it is today.

On a happier note, we also came across a litter of relatively newly-born puppies near the water! Like most other strays in Turkey, they were very sweet and friendly! And when mum returned to find us cuddling her pups, she was very understanding and just kept a watchful eye on us.