PAMUKKALE AND HIERAPOLIS

I was here: June 19, 2018.
Number of days needed: in half a day you can see everything.
My score: 4/5, but if there were half tourists, 5/5.

Turkey is a kind of curious place since it has 3 spots that, although they are similar to others that exist in different countries, represent the best exponent within their category. One is Istanbul, the second Cappadocia, and the third is Pamukkale, which like the previous one is not only the best site of its kind that can be found, but it is so much that it seems from another planet. The so-called “Cotton Castle”, literal translation of its name in Turkish, is a succession of hundreds of calcareous pools formed by water rich in Creta limestone (the type used to make chalk) that flows from underground springs in on top of a hill, covering a large part of its slope, specifically 2.7 km wide by 160 m high. If we add that the emanated water is thermal and it has a beautiful light blue – turquoise color while in the pools, it is not strange that thousands of years ago it was considered a wonder of the known world, which is why the ancient Greeks built a spa town a few meters from the white wall called Hierapolis, whose ruins are in the grounds and can also be visited, which makes for a very complete and interesting excursion. Both are inscribed in UNESCO’s heritage since 1988.

In case someone can not get close to Turkey, the places that pretend to look like Pamukkale are:

Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, United States, whose color is not as snowy.
Egerszalók in Hungary, beautiful, but largely privatized.
Huanglong in China, although scarce, its turquoise color is magnificent.
And Hierve el Agua in Mexico, with high petrified waterfalls up to 30 meters high.

They will not be so nice, but surely they are quieter. The only drawback is that it has become a kind of theme park where in high season you have to dodge people to move through the areas where you are allowed to walk, entire families come to spend the day, organized tour buses appear by dozens and candidates to become instagrammers take over the most photogenic corners for as long as they feel they need. It is what fame involves, not in vain is one of those few landscapes that is difficult to believe that exists.