Pamukkale
About Pamukkale
There are places in the world that photographs cannot fully prepare you for. Pamukkale is one of them. The brilliant white travertine terraces cascading down the hillside, filled with warm mineral-rich pools that reflect the sky above them, produce a landscape so unusual that it looks artificial until you are standing in it barefoot, feeling the warm water around your feet and the white calcium formations beneath them. The ancient Greeks and Romans knew about this place too; the city of Hierapolis was built at the summit of the terraces around 190 BC, its inhabitants convinced that the thermal waters had healing powers, and the ruins of that city, including a remarkably preserved amphitheatre, a vast necropolis and the sacred Cleopatra Pool, still stand above the white cascade today. Pamukkale was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 and nearly lost to overdevelopment before a major conservation effort restored it to the condition you see today. It is one of the genuinely irreplaceable natural and historical landscapes in the world, and a day trip that no visitor to the Antalya region should consider skipping.
Overview
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Region
Denizli, Aegean Türkiye
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Population
~ 350.000
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Elevation
354m (Travertine Terraces)
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Climate
Mediterranean Continental
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Best Time to Visit
April to October
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Nearest Airport
Denizli Çardak Airport (65 km)
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Known For
White Travertine Terraces, Hierapolis Ancient City, Cleopatra Pool, UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location
Things To Do in Pamukkale;
1 Walk the White Terraces
The travertine terraces of Pamukkale are the reason most people make the journey here, and they are best experienced slowly and on foot. Visitors remove their shoes at the entrance and walk barefoot across the white calcium formations, wading through the warm shallow pools as the water flows from one terrace to the next. The temperature of the water varies across the hillside, warmer closer to the source and cooling gradually as it descends. The colour of the terraces shifts throughout the day as the light changes, from a brilliant white at midday to a warm amber and pink in the late afternoon. The walk from the bottom of the terraces to the summit, where the ruins of Hierapolis begin, takes around 30 to 45 minutes and covers ground that has been walked by visitors seeking the same warm water for over two thousand years.
2 Explore the Ruins of Hierapolis
At the summit of the travertine terraces, the ancient city of Hierapolis spreads across a plateau with views over the entire Aegean plain below. Founded around 190 BC by the King of Pergamon, the city grew into one of the most important spa destinations of the ancient world and at its peak housed tens of thousands of inhabitants drawn by the healing reputation of the thermal waters. The theatre, built during the Roman imperial period and capable of seating twelve thousand spectators, is one of the finest in Türkiye and remains in remarkable condition. The necropolis stretching along the road leading out of the city is one of the largest ancient cemeteries in the world, its sarcophagi and tomb monuments extending for over two kilometres along the hillside. The Plutonium, a cave emitting toxic carbon dioxide gas that ancient priests used to dramatic ceremonial effect, sits at the edge of the archaeological site and was only formally rediscovered in 2013.
3 Swim in Cleopatra's Pool
Within the ruins of Hierapolis, the Antique Pool, known widely as Cleopatra's Pool, offers something that very few archaeological sites in the world can match: the opportunity to swim among ancient Roman columns in naturally heated thermal water. The columns lying on the pool floor were toppled by an earthquake in the 7th century AD and have remained where they fell ever since, the warm mineral-rich water flowing around and over them as it has for centuries. The water temperature holds at around 35 degrees Celsius year-round, the mineral content is high enough to give the water a slight effervescence, and the setting, ancient stone, warm water and the ruins of Hierapolis visible on every side, is unlike anything else available as a day trip from the Antalya region.
