Highlights of South Western Antolia, Pamukkale and Ephesus

Perhaps, the second most exciting thing for me to see in Turkey after Istanbul is the cotton castle. In turkish, Pamukkale means "cotton castle".   This wonder is located in the south western Denizli region of Turkey.  

I'm not really sure why they call it cotton castle.  But Pamukkale is actually a series of terraces made of travertine, a form of limestone deposited by the mineral springs.   They appear white due to the calcium deposits by the flowing water coming from the nearby hot springs.

To get to Pamukkale, we first flew to Denizli.  Denizli airport is located farther out from the town of Denizli.  Outside the Denizli airport, there are local buses, which took us to the Denizli bus station.  If you are going straight to Pamukkale, mention the bus driver and he will give the instructions for transfer to another bus which goes to the Pamukkale town.   We reached Pamukkale town, located at the foot of the cotton castle, about 9.30 am ( bus ride was 20 lira per person).  From the town, we hike through the famous cotton castle and to the top.

Hiking Through Travertine

On top of the cotton castle is the ancient town of Hierapolis.   We spent too much time at the cotton castle and did not get a chance to walk around Hierapolis.   But we did manage to take a look at Hierapolis pool ( an extra surcharge of 30 lira if you want to swim in the pool), which I personally don't think is worth the extra bucks.

Hierapolis Ruins

There are dolmus (local buses) which you can take to the top of the travertine, through Hierapolis.  If you are constraint on time, taking local buses will save some time and allow you to see both Hierapolis and the cotton castle.

After spending half day at Pamukkale, we headed our way down to the town and took a bus to Denizli train station.

Our next stop is Selcuk.  Train travel is very very cheap in Turkey and even cheaper than buses.   The price of a train ticket is 17 lira per person and the train ride is about ~4 hours to Selcuk.  The only complaint that I have about train travel is that it makes all the stops between Denzili and Selcuk.   

We stayed overnight at this amazing B&B called Amazon Petite Palace in Selcuk.  Selcuk is relatively small compared to Denizli.  The town is very quiet but so rich in history.   This is the town where John and Mary last lived after Christ's crucification.   Most people visit Selcuk due to Ephesus,  an ancient Greek city. We were originally debating a lot whether or not to go to Ephesus as our schedule was really tight.  But ruins in Ephesus were very memorable and I was very happy that we did.

Ephesus itself is about 10 minutes cab ride from Selcuk town.  There are two entrances to Ephesus, the top gate and the lower gate.  We took the cab to the top gate, as recommended by our host and made our way down to the lower gate.  This map is a very accurate description of the Ephesus.

The Curetes Street

Believe it or not - this is the brothel, right next to the public toilets

Library of Celsius

One can hike from Ephesus lower gate entrance back to the town of Selcuk.  On the hike back, one can also stop to see Temple of Artemis, which is only a site and definitely can be skipped.  You can also see the Temple of Artemis from the hills of St. John Basilica.  Since we had to catch the flight back to Istanbul from Izmir, we took the dolmus back to the guest house.  St. John Basilica is right across from our B&B, so we also stopped by to see the place where John the Baptist and Virgin Mary last lived.  Even though I’m not a Christian, I felt very special to have visited the place.    I would have loved to visit Virgin Mary house, but it was not near Selcuk and we had a plane to catch to be back to Istanbul.

If we had more time, I would have loved to visit Virgin Mary's house, which is a little bit farther away.