{"id":76777,"date":"2013-10-01T10:57:02","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T07:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=76777"},"modified":"2023-07-26T11:43:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T08:43:10","slug":"pamukkale-for-liquid-relaxation-the-turkish-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/10\/01\/pamukkale-for-liquid-relaxation-the-turkish-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Pamukkale for Liquid Relaxation the Turkish Way"},"content":{"rendered":"
Posted on\u00a0March 14, 2012\u00a0by\u00a0Laurie Balbo<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\n

\"Pamukkale,<\/p>\n

Think Egypt\u2019s White Desert meeting Mont Blanc.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three days of heavy snowfall hit downtown Amman, fat flakes\u00a0screaming for clothes not\u00a0found in our closets.\u00a0 Schools shut and offices closed.\u00a0 Icy roads\u00a0wrought havoc on the annual\u00a0Dead2Red\u00a0bike and running race.\u00a0Park aside historical significance, religious connotation, and cultural pride: I say this waterbody\u2019s main value is as an organic stress-reducer for Egyptians and Jordanians, and for tourists from everywhere else drawn to its salt-encrusted shores.<\/p>\n

Wade, float, gaze at its gorgeousness and feel your muscles go slack, your pulse settle into a kitten\u2019s purr at the\u00a0Dead Sea. So with local weather so unpredictable and a school break looming, I poked around for alternative de-stress-tinations with a warm water theme. Say hello to Pamukkale, Turkey.<\/p>\n

Natural relaxation\u2019s most excellent Plan B.\u00a0Pamukkale is a surreal natural hot tub growing in southwestern\u00a0Turkey. It\u2019s a series of brilliant white travertine steps, fanning across a hilltop, filled with a continual stream of heated mineral water from 17 natural hot springs. It promises to be as revivifying to the body as it is to the soul.<\/p>\n

\"Pamukkale,For over 14,000 years, calcium carbonate (CaCO3) contained in the flowing waters has coated the outcropping in a\u00a0sparkling white icing. This mineral is the main ingredient in pearls and eggshells, and it supersaturates these waters.<\/p>\n

The water off-gasses\u00a0carbon dioxide\u00a0when it hits the surface, in turn depositing the CaCO3\u00a0on the pool beds. The CaCO3\u00a0solidifies over time, expanding the terraced structure. Pool temperatures vary from tepid to boiling.<\/p>\n

People have bathed here for millennia: the water has therapeutic qualities and since antiquity has been used to treat eye and skin diseases, high blood pressure and heart disease.\u00a0 Unlike the Dead Sea, here you can splash with abandon, dunk your head, and open your eyes\u00a0underwater.<\/p>\n

Tourism is big\u00a0business in Pamukkale, whose name means \u201ccotton castle\u201d in Turkish. Located about 12 miles north of the town of Denizli, it\u2019s also home to the Byzantine\/Greco-Roman city Hierapolis which was built in the 6th\u00a0century BCE.\u00a0 The ruins cover an extensive area.\u00a0 Over time, as the pools enlarge,\u00a0\u00a0they slowly encase the\u00a0archeology in a crystalline white crust.<\/p>\n

\"Pamukkale,The site had been largely unprotected until 1988 when it was declared a\u00a0World Heritage\u00a0site.\u00a0 Previous development had caused considerable damage to both the archeological ruins and the travertine pools. Cars and motorcycles were allowed to traverse the hills and hotels were built on top of the ancient\u2019 remains.<\/p>\n

Vehicles are now prohibited and the intrusive hotels demolished.\u00a0 Restorative work continues and protections are in place.<\/p>\n

As example, shoes are prohibited when bathing,\u00a0 and many areas are off-limits to foot traffic altogether.<\/p>\n

Stark white objects in nature make for arresting visuals.\u00a0 Think Egypt\u2019s\u00a0White Desert, and Mont Blanc: riveting viewing, but hardly body-friendly. I\u2019ve scraped knees on pale salt-caked boulders edging the Dead Sea, and had Dover Cliffs\u2019 chalk fall on my head. Here\u2019s hoping that Pamukkale proves as easy on my body as it will be on my eyes.<\/p>\n

And please, no more freak snow in Jordan.<\/p>\n

First and third\u00a0image by\u00a0www.ilostravel.con.tr\u00a0; second image by\u00a0www.crainium.net\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

source : greenprophet<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted on\u00a0March 14, 2012\u00a0by\u00a0Laurie Balbo Think Egypt\u2019s White Desert meeting Mont Blanc.\u00a0 Three days of heavy snowfall hit downtown Amman, fat flakes\u00a0screaming for clothes not\u00a0found in our closets.\u00a0 Schools shut and offices closed.\u00a0 Icy roads\u00a0wrought havoc on the annual\u00a0Dead2Red\u00a0bike and running race.\u00a0Park aside historical significance, religious connotation, and cultural pride: I say this waterbody\u2019s main […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1094],"tags":[9265],"class_list":["post-76777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tourism","tag-pamukkale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}