Our luck with crowds ran out today.  Pamukkale is (or rather, was) a series of calcium carbonate terraces down a huge hillside formed by the sedimentation of minerals from the hot springs overflowing here.  They are blindingly white and astonishingly semicircular in places as they step down the hill.  Historically they were used as hot water spas for luxury and health treatment at least as far back as the second century B.C., and there were several spa resorts located at the top of the hill until the Turkish government turned it into a national park in 1988 with help from UNESCO.  You cannot walk out on the natural formations now, and are limited to a series of terrace pools that are reinforced by human effort.  Even here you are required to take off your shoes and walk barefoot.  We wondered how this is handled in winter but never found anyone we could ask.

In any event, it was (1) a Sunday, (2) Easter weekend, and (3) hot and sunny, and there were people and tour buses everywhere.  Many of them were in swimsuits, especially the kids and teenagers.  It was a great day outing for all sorts of people, but we were a little put off, mostly by the artificial nature of the featured part of the attraction.  Perhaps we would have appreciated it more if we’d had it to ourselves.  There was also a fine set of ancient ruins on the top of the hill, but we bypassed nearly all of them.  We are a little over saturated with ruins at this point, even Phyllis.  Back in Pamukkale village, we had a nice dinner at the hotel of our traditional Easter chicken (well, not prepared our traditional way with a beer can on the grill, but very tasty, nonetheless).