HIERAOPOLIS AND TRAVERTINES

OCT 27

This is Hierapolis. Yes, more ruins. Pretty tho.

Now these ruins are different. This is a necropolis, city of the dead, or cemetery. There were thousands of people buried here mostly in crypts.

This tomb building, we would call mausoleum, is half buried in the travertine caused by the hot springs.

These are called pamukkale, which translates into the cotton terraces.

What you can't see is how large an area they cover. The waterflow over the terraces is now being controlled by man, just like some in New Zealand.

While we were wetting our feet in the lukewarm water, some puppies stole Blanche's socks. Duane had to be the hero and rescue the socks from the pup's mom. She wasn't happy to give them up.

There are still some hot springs in town, reminds me of Pagosa Springs.

Look at the tilework on the road.

This is "just" a regular mosque, not the famous blue mosque in Istanbul, but this one is bluer and, I think, prettier. It is much smaller, tho.

We were unable to visit a school supported by Grand Circle Foundation since we would arrive on a Saturday. A part of our fees go to this foundation that supports schools and archaeological sites. Our guide was able to arrange a visit to a regular school in a poor part of Turkey. It was even more interesting since it was just a couple of days before Turkey's independence day, so the kids were practicing for their parade. We visited a first grade class. They sang their version of 'ol McDonald, which is 'Ali Baba had a farm' and we sang ours. After high fiving some of the kids we met the English teacher who had us meet some of her students.

English class homework

Some of the older kids saying goodbye. The students gave us some of the local yogurt and water drink. We were told that the school had received boxes of books from America and they could not thank us enough.

Here we are having our fast food prepared. Gozleme, a local type of tortilla filled with either cheese, meat, spinach, or any combination of them.

This is the fastfood restaurant