One of the bizzare natural sites in western Turkey is Pamukkale. It’s a spring bubbling up through calcium to create waterfalls dropping off stalagtite covered shelvess into travertine pools.

It really just looks like a hillside covered in snow or cotton. The name Pamukkale means ‘Cotton Castle’, but that actually may have as much to do with the ancient local cotton and textile industries as the fluffy white calcium patches on the hill. The Roman resort town of Hierapolis was built here to make use of the pools’ rejuvenating affects and it is here that Marc Antony and Cleopatra honeymooned. We spent so much time laying in the warm pools and under waterfalls and playing in the mud that we never made it to the ruins, though.

Yes, the sign says ‘hey tourist, get off the travertine’. That means we had to wait in a line to take this picture.

FrankenMary trying out the mudbath