Pamukkale or Hierapolis, Turkey 10/30/2006

Pic is the arched gate to the ancient city of Hierapolis.......I'm up early using the WC,.  The alarm goes off and it's cold in the room.  I have struggled to keep warm.  Up and dressed and to breakfast of tomato, cucumbers, olives, egg, bread, cheese, coffee and condiments, a typical Turkish breakfast.  When we first get up no one is around.  Janeen wakes the guy sleeping on the couch.  He makes us coffee and soon the lady to make our breakfast arrives.  He tells us our tour will be here @ 9 a.m.  We're having breakfast and the guide has arrived, eating some food and calls my name.   I haven't even noticed her.  We are going to Pamukkale today instead of Ephesus.  En route she gives us some information.  "Pamu" means cotton and "kkale" means castle.  Pamukkale given to the city later.  The original name was Hierapolis or "Holy City".  It's a big cotton growing area and right now is harvest and there are migrant workers from the east living in their tents and picking cotton.  Pamukkale is also known as "The White Calcium City".  The water is 35c,  about 96f, and you can only wade in the pools now.  There is an ancient pool to swim in @ 18 YTL each but we forgot our suits, DAMN.  It looks great but we had expected to go to Ephesus and not needing the suits.  This area was the earliest textile manufacturer.  Pics are:  "The Calcium City" Pammukkale; the terraces; the terraces w/ people; me in a pool; Janeen in a pool; me sitting in the hot water trench; the ancient swimming pool; the front of the theatre; the theatre seats 15,000; the sarcophazi in the cemetery.........The government had allowed hotels to be built above the pools and they began turning yellow.  Five years ago they closed the hotels above the terraces and closed the swimming.  You can only walk thru without your shoes today.  For 18 YTL you can swim in the private ancient pool.  Looked great but because of the change in tours, I didn't have my bathing suit with me.  The city was established in 2nd. C. BC by Pergamon King Eumere II and called Hierapolis, because of Hiera, wife of the legendary founder of the city Telephos.  The city became a health, religious and art center for centuries because of the 11,000-year-old travertine (a mineral consisting of a massive layered calcium carbonate formed by deposition from hot springs) and the thermal water which is believed to be good for health.  The necropolis, dead city, lies outside of the city and we pass thru it before reaching the ruins of the city.  There are 1,300 tombs here made of marble and limestone, includes the characteristic sarcophagi, flesh-eating tomb of the period from late Hellenistic to the early Christianity and is the most preserved cemetery of the ancient world in Turkey.  There were abut 75,000 people living here.  Only 3% of it is excavated.  Pamukkale is dedicated to Apollo, the Protector God, whereas Pergamon to Athena, The Goddess of skill, education and warfare.  There is only one Roman Bath left in the ruins and we did not stop to photograph.  Our guide is Ayse (pronounced Ishay) and she is quite good.  Knows her stuff and you can see her think where English is concerned.  As you enter the city there is a 3-arch gate with 2 towers on either side.  An Agora, or market place, to the left of this gate where there were about 50 shops.  Everyday they would sacrifice an animal fr Good Luck before business began.  The earliest columns are in the Doric style.  Some Ionic style with ram's horn shape and Corinthian with leaves on the column.  You can tell the Greek from the Roman theatre, as the Greek's shaped theirs in a horseshoe and the Romans was circular.  If there are no water channels visible in the theatre, it was a covered theatre.  The theatre here sat 15,000 people.  This also is the oldest heated city in the ancient world invented by the Romans in the 1st. C. AD.  There are Christian symbols on the inside arch of the end gate.  The city was abandoned in the 7th. C. by the Romans and settled in the 12th. C. by nomadic Turks from Asia.  There were 22 different dynasties formed in Turkey.  We drive back to Selcuk which is about 3 hours.  Janeen stays in the room and I go out to get some dinner.  It's lamb shish kebab, and very good.  Veggies and something like couscous.  I walk back to the hotel in the rain.  The restaurant guy has bagged the bread for me.  I stop at the bakery and get another cream-filled horn.  To bed and end of a wonderful day..............next Ephesus..........