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Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site in Denizli Province in south-western Turkey. The city contains hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. It is located in Turkey's Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which has a temperate climate for most of the year.

The ancient city of Hierapolis was built on top of the white "castle" which is in total about 2,700 metres (8,860 ft) long, 600 m (1,970 ft) wide and 160 m (525 ft) high. It can be seen from the hills on the opposite side of the valley in the town of Denizli, 20 km away.

Tourism is and has been a major industry. People have bathed in its pools for thousands of years. As recently as the mid 20th century, hotels were built over the ruins of Heropolis, causing considerable damage. An approach road was built from the valley over the terraces, and motor bikes were allowed to go up and down the slopes. When the area was declared a world heritage site, the hotels were demolished and the road removed and replaced with artificial pools. Wearing shoes in the water is prohibited to protect the deposits.



Geology
Panoramic view of travertine terraces at Pamukkale

Pamukkale's terraces are made of travertine, a sedimentary rock deposited by water from the hot springs.

In this area, there are 17 hot water springs in which the temperature ranges from 35 °C (95 °F) to 100 °C (212 °F).[citation needed] The water that emerges from the spring is transported 320 metres (1,050 ft)[citation needed] to the head of the travertine terraces and deposits calcium carbonate on a section 60 to 70 metres (200 to 230 ft) long covering an expanse of 240 metres (790 ft) to 300 metres (980 ft). When the water, supersaturated with calcium carbonate, reaches the surface, carbon dioxide degases from it, and calcium carbonate is deposited. The depositing continues until the carbon dioxide in the water balances the carbon dioxide in the air.[citation needed] Calcium carbonate is deposited by the water as a soft jelly,[citation needed] but this eventually hardens into travertine.

This reaction is affected by the weather conditions, ambient temperature, and the flow duration. Precipitation continues until the carbon dioxide in the thermal water reaches equilibrium with the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Measurements made at the source of the springs find atmospheric levels of 725 mg/l carbon dioxide, by the time this water flows across the travertine, this figure falls to 145 mg/l. Likewise calcium carbonate falls from 1200 mg/l to 400 mg/l and calcium 576.8 mg/l to 376.6 mg/l. From these results it is calculated that 499.9 mg of CaCO3 is deposited on the travertine for every litre of water. This means that for a flow rate of 1 ı/s of water 43191 grams are deposited daily. The average density of a travertine is 1.48 g/cm3 implying a deposit of 29.2 dm3. Given that the average flow of the water is 465.2 l/s this implies that it can whiten 13584 m2 a day, but in practice this areal coverage is difficult to attain. These theoretical calculations indicate that up to. 4.9 km2 it can be covered with a white deposit of 1 mm thickness.



Archeology
For other uses, see Hierapolis (disambiguation).
Hierapolis-Pamukkale*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
The main thoroughfare of Hierapolis
State Party Turkey
Type Mixed
Criteria iii, iv, vii
Reference 485
Region** Europe and Asia
Inscription history
Inscription 1988 (12th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
** Region as classified by UNESCO.
Hierapolis is located in Turkey
Hierapolis
Hierapolis (Pamukkale)

Hierapolis (Greek: Ἱεράπολις 'holy city') was the ancient Greek city on top of hot springs located in south western Turkey near Denizli.

Hierapolis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The hot springs there have been used as a spa since the 2nd century BCE, and people came to soothe their ailments, with many of them retiring or dying here. The large necropolis is filled with sarcophagi, including the Sarcophagus of Marcus Aurelius Ammianos.

The great baths were constructed with huge stone blocks without the use of cement, and consisted of various closed or open sections linked together. There are deep niches in the inner section of the bath, library, gymnasium and other closed or open locations. The complex, which was constructed in the 2nd century BCE, constitutes a good example of vault type architecture. The complex is now an archaeological museum.




Museum

The former Roman Bath of the ancient city of Hierapolis has been used as the site of the Hierapolis Archaeology Museum since 1984.

In this museum, alongside historical artifacts from Hierapolis, there are also artifacts from Laodiceia, Colossae, Tripolis, Attuda and other towns of the Lycos (Çürüksu) valley. In addition to these, the museum has a large section devoted to artifacts found at Beycesultan Hüyük that includes some of the most beautiful examples of Bronze Age craft.

Artifacts from the Caria, Pisidia and Lydia regions are also on display in this museum. The museum’s exhibition space consists of three closed areas of the Hierapolis Bath and the open areas in the eastern side which are known to have been used as the library and gymnasium. The artifacts in open exhibition space are mostly marble and stone.




Tourist attraction

Pamukkale is a tourist attraction. It is recognized as a World Heritage Sites together with Hierapolis. A few other places in the world resemble it, including the Mammoth Hot Springs in the USA and Huanglong in Sichuan Province of China (another UNESCO World Heritage Site). Hierapolis-Pamukkale was made a World Heritage Site in 1988.

The underground volcanic activity which causes the hot springs also forced carbon dioxide into a cave, which was called the Plutonium meaning place of the god, Pluto. This cave was used for religious purposes by priests of Cybele, who found ways to appear immune to the suffocating gas.

Do Opera need those photos in main page to bring more new members to our comunity?
Well...
What I don't like is my photo close of the others, usualy those kind of photos are in main page...

Please Opera Team there are so many amazing photographers in our community to post his photos on the main page...that you should think about. If you need help to find those photographers please ask me, I will be honorad to help Opera team!


Zé

Long time I don't post something here...
Yes I miss my friends all the time visiting my post and making great comments but last weeks I was busy with my work, now I have a bit more time...not to much work that is not nice too.
But today I went in a place to make some photos for my 365 project a photo every day.
I found a Cherrie tree with some red cherries ready to be eat...I pick some and they was delicious.
In another tree I saw a beautiful nest. No birds inside so careful me went to see better, that nest was only about 1,5m from the soil, so it was easy for me to take some photos.
And here we have the beautiful nest with four green eggs.

Time to time I will take a look and bring more photos of the nest and his life...
I really hope no one find that nest and destroy, I hope to have the chance to take photos of the babies soon.
So let's see what will happen in a new post!

Take alert

Wildflowers are very anxiously to show how beautiful they are in bloom. Those last days was very sunny and a bit more warm, between +13 and +18 censius.

It's a fantastic time of the year, even early for Spring season...


Those are the 12 different species I have found in last four days and already in bloom.

.
Soon our fields will be full of flowers for everywhere.

Then I will be here to show you much more different species of wild flowers.

A group of my Opera friends accept the challenge to make a funny or creative photo about Coca Cola...


Please click "read more" to see all the fun fan photos!

Read more...