Aphrodesias and Pamukkale

8^th June 2011

Today our touring numbers have reduced as the Hollingsworth clan have decided to have a rest day, the heat has been taking it’s toll and they have seen enough ruins. A day of swimming, shopping, eating and drinking, and checking out the marina were on the agenda. Mark's account of what happened is as follows:

"After a leisurely breakfast we strolled down past the marina, but high security prevented entry.

Then it was off to the shops, but the men got sick of shops and headed off for drink, had a few beers and headed back to the hotel. The girls eventually returned around 5pm and we all had a swim and dinner at the hotel."

So for the Quinn’s and Macdonald’s it is off to Aphrodesias and Pamukkale.  It will be a long day as the driving time to and from is about 3 hrs. Our first stop was Aphrodesias which has some quite well preserved ruins and unlike many of the other places, the statues recovered during excavation have been placed in a museum on site and not relocated to an overseas museum. The Parliament area was particularly well preserved.

                                                    The Parliament where the Senate met

The Main City Gate

Aphrodesias had the largest stadium in the land which could hold 30,000 people

Some of the Statues recovered from the site

After visiting Aphrodesias we had the usual lunch in a local restaurant on our way to the next attraction. As has been the case throughout the tour, the lunch was excellent local food.

We were greeted at lunch spot by a muscian with a dancing and singing parakeet

Our next destination Parmukkale, is in a volcanic area and consists of a huge travertine outcrop fed by a natural spring. It is a very popular spot for people to go and bath in the hot spring for curing all sorts of ailments. It is apparently very popular with the Russians. The scenery is quite spectacular, with multiple pools of hot spring water, cascading down the hill in marble benches.

Terraces of marble at Parmukkale

Many of the terraces were filled with hot spring water

After spending a little under an hour walking around we headed back to the bus to return to Kusadasi. We arrived back just after 8pm.

We had dinner at a local restaurant and tried a few local Turkish specialties.