Cotton Castles of Turkey

I met up with Steve again and exchanged notes of what we did the past week. He raved about Pamakala with its stunning calcium pools. I decided to spend one more day in Kusadasi and check them out. Pamakala is about 3 hours inland. So I signed up for a tour that would pick me up at the marina in the morning. On the way to Pamakala, we drove through traditional villages where the residents still make their way through life in rual farms. On the roofs of some of the houses were glass bottles cemented right into the ridgeline. The guide explained that the number of bottles represented the number of unmarried daughters living there. So if you had 5 daughters, there would be 5 bottles on the roof. When a young man wished to marry one of the daughters, he had to take a rock and break one of the bottles to signify that he was committing to marrying her and sharing his life with her. Not sure what happens if he accidently breaks two bottles at the same time.

Pamakala which means cotton castle is a town that predates the Romans. It has always been a place where people came to be healed by the calcium rich pools. Because a lot of sick people came here, there are also a lot of graves. Most are stone sarcophagus that I learned is Greek for meat eating rock. Later, whole families built mausoleums that were much more substantial. A lot of the stonework is still intact. On up the hill we get a glimpse of the white pools. Over the centuries the calcium has been deposited in such quantities that it looks like freshly fallen snow. The whole hillside is a washed in white formations that cascade down the hill. The ancient pools flow from one to the other to create a series of waterfalls stepping down the hill. The calcium was hard as stone as we walked through them with bare feet. The whole experience did have a healing feeling. From there the bus took us all to another set of mineral pools and a big buffet lunch of traditional Turkish food. These mineral pools were made from iron deposits. Their rich burnt orange pools flowed with scalding hot water gushing out of the hillside that with each consecutive pool cooled to a more tolerable level. It is said that by soaking in them you become 20 years younger. I didn’t put my head in any of them, but I have to say, my feet are looking quite good.

The final stop was an onyx factory. They did a demonstration on how they make onyx works of art. The artisan put a block of onyx on a lathe and within literally minutes honed out an onyx egg. It took just a few minutes and about 5 grades of sandpaper to smooth it into a polished rock egg. I didn’t realize how fast the whole process was. From there we made our way back on the bus and back to the marina. A full day of sightseeing. Are you exhausted yet?