Thursday is weekly market day in Karahayit so we had a glorious morning shopping with the locals on the field where goods of all types were being sold - clothing, plasticware, spices, olives and olive products, nuts and seeds, Turkish Delight, great round feta and other soft cheeses, an iced chilli drink which was spicy hot ….Our suitcases had to expand yet again!
The travertine terraces at Pamukkale, another World Heritage Site, could not fail to
impress, despite the cloudy weather and the chill wind blowing. The terraces from which Pamukkale gets its name, meaning “cotton castle”, are formed when the hot spring water flowing downhill loses its carbon dioxide, leaving behind deposits of limestone and pools of turquoise water.
Guray our guide is a great story teller and his commentary re the ruins of
Hierapolis was interspersed with the myths and legends of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Hierapolis was founded in about 190 BC by Eumenes ll, King of Pergama and
was ceded to Rome in 133 BC. Destroyed by an earthquake in 60 AD, it was rebuilt and as a cure centre flourished under the Romans and the Byzantines when it had a Jewish and early Christian community. Successive earthquakes eventually took their toll and after a major one in 1334, the city was deserted. Water and deposits of travertine covered parts of the city. It is a fascinating area that requires more than an hour or two! The large necropolis contains more than 1200 tombs of varying shapes and sizes and it alone takes time to explore. The crystal clear pools with their sunken columns attract a large number of people who wish to take to the 'curative waters”.
We left Pamukkale just after 4pm and had no sooner reached the main Antalya- Izmir
highway when the radiator hose of the minibus blew and we had an unscheduled 1 ½ hour stopover at a roadside centre. It gave us the chance to fraternise with our fellow travellers, a young couple from German-speaking northern Italy. With two degrees under his belt , the young man was studying Mandarin and the Chinese culture so that he could understand the difficulties that the emigrants arriving in his area experienced, settling within a culture so very different from their native one. Lovely people!
At 9.30pm the Artemis Hotel in Selcuk came as a bit of a surprise. Not quite what we anticipated from recommendations on Trip-Advisor, but the helpfulness of hardworking Berkant and Simson supplying endless cups of tea and making sure that we were happily fed made up for shortcomings of the building itself. While we had a delicious supper at a nearby restaurant some of the problems were sorted out. Our table was outside but we were plied with jackets and pashminas to keep out the cold – re-affirming my impression of the warmth and courtesy of the Turkish people.
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