The Cotton Castle of Turkey – Pammukale, near Denizli, Turkey

A beautiful and sleepy town in Turkey, Pammukale is one of my favorite places. The name Pammukale means Cotton Castle in Turkish and it gets it name from lovely travertines that flow down the hillside from hot springs, leaving behind a soft white snow of calcium carbonate and bisodium carbonate. You can bath in the pools as you walk up to the ancient city of Hieropolis, with its own Necropolis.

The ruins are open to explore and in the 70’s, Italian stone masons came and re-fitted the ampitheather into a useable arena. In late June, they have a folk festival that is awe-inspiring in the ampitheather. The musuem is in an ancient building and has wonderful sculptures.

At the top of the hill, you can see the Turkish country side for miles and there is a bathing pool (it cost about $10 and is worth every penny!), the water is hot and fizzy like soda. But the best part is that the pool is located over the ruined temple of Apollo and you swim over tumbled-down marble pillars.

We stayed in a rustic hotel named the Allgau in Turkish and Melrose Place in English. The owner, Mehmet Güleç (pronouced Gulech), and his family run this charming hotel. The rooms are simple, but the family is very nice and Mehmet’s wife is an excellent cook, so we ended up eating most of our meals there. My family and I meant to stay for 3 days but ended staying for over a week. The rooms are wonderfully cheap, we payed $6 for a single and $12 for a double.

Mehmet is listed in the Lonely Planet guidebook. I believe his email address is allgau at superonline dot com.

He was also willing to drive us (for a small charge) over to the ancient city of Aphrodosious. He, his family and staff helped make our visit like a wonderful dream and I hope to move to Pammukale when I retire!

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