Pamukkale & Hierapolis – Well this place is amazing. I will include more pics of it than usual because it is so incredible. The word Pamukkale means “cotton castle”. We can see why when we look at it as it is formed by calcium-oxide rich waters flowing over the slopes of the ancient city of Hierapolis. Over millions of years a white deposit is left called ‘travertines’. These travertines are only found on this spot in the whole world. The pic to the left is actually the ancient city latrines, and I included it because it rhymes with travertines. The latrines show us how clever the Romans were while the travertines show us how clever God is...and continues to be. Hierapolis was known as and means ‘Holy City’ because it was thought the Gods married here. We have been told Cleopatra stayed here to bath and preserve her beauty. Today there are literally hundreds of Russian women here who visit regularly to bath in the same waters hoping to receive the long lasting beauty treatment of nature. I will let you in on a little secret...it was not working! I spent half a day here wandering through the ancient city and soaking up the travertines. I also found two turtles here, one I called Travis because of the travertines, and the other I called Phillip because I found him in the ruined church of St Phillip (the place where he was martyred). 
Oh well, I had better get on with my day as you can see I am very busy. Where we are staying now is called Kas (pronounced 'Kash'). It is a beautiful seaside town of 7,000. Our accommodation overlooks the Mediterranean and is truly beautiful. This is a real treat and very unexpected. I must stop now as I think I am leading you into the occasion of sin by jealousy. This blog page is dedicated to Fr Samy as he is maintaining the parish of Young while I try to maintain my sanity in southern Turkey. A tip I have just learnt - click on the pics and you can enlarge them, but please do not do that with my face in it. Pace e bene.
No comments:
Post a Comment