Pamukkale, a cotton castle
Pamukkale, a cotton castle
Southwest of Turkey, in the valley of the Menderes River, is a snow-covered reddish hill: Pamukkale, Cotton Castle (in Turkish). This white castle is 160 meters high and 2,700 meters long. 17 hot water sources emit 250 l of water per second between 35 and 100 ° C. The calcium carbonate dissolved in this water precipitates, giving the hill that white color the deposit called travertine resulting.
The thick layers of travertine form in some points vertical walls, other structures that look like icy waterfalls and shallow terraces full of water.
The Greeks considered its waters as healing and at the top of Pamukkale built the city of Hierapolis in 180 BC. Currently you can visit remains of this city as the necropolis, surrounded by white travertine.
XX. At the end of the 20th century, tourism infrastructure threatened Pamukkale. Hotels were built, hot springs diverted to them, a road was built... Many wells dried up and Pamukkale began to lose its whiteness. Aware of this, measures were taken to recover the beauty of the cotton castle, such as the demolition of the hotels.
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