Catching some z's on the way to Korkuteli and the farmer's market.
A shepherdess and her flock. Really. The bus stopped here, folks got out to snap pics and talk to her. This is her flock.
Our fearless driver, Rafet. He took that bus places a Smart Car wouldn't go.
Mine explained to us that a commercial driver, like Rafet, can be stopped at any time by (the Turkish equivalent of) the highway patrol who will check to see if they have been speeding. These round cards keep track of the speed of the bus and probably other measurable data. I believe they are inserted into some mechanism that records when the speed of the bus goes above the legal limit? So a driver doesn't have to be speeding past a cop with a radar gun. Potentially, the cop can tell if you were speeding yesterday and cite you.
Another real farmer's market for the locals of this part of Korkuteli. Here is a brief clip of the hustle and bustle.
A clip from the market. I really wanted on of these brooms. But I knew it would be all frayed and broken by the time I got it home.
Highway signs with the red stripe through the name of the town indicate you are leaving that town.
OK, not sure how Mine waound up holding a goose but here she is doing just that. We stopped for lunch at a large rest stop. I ran inside for a potty break and a snack and came out to find this scene. Usually, geese are mean. But this one seemed to enjoy being held.
On to Pamukkale (pah-MOO-kah-lay).
Pamukkale, "cotton castle" in Turkish, is an ancient site marked with limestone and travertine cliffs.
Travertine is the sedimentary rock deposited by the hot springs. The calcium carbonate causes the white-out look. This is just like the Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. But I don't recall visitors being allowed to wade around or walk around on the travertine in Yellowstone. Later in this post, there is a shot from the top of these terraces. They are really huge. You are allowed to walk in them - barefoot only. People have been using the hot springs for health and recreation since the 2nd century BCE.
Pamukkale, the natural site of the terraces, is part of ancient Hieropolis. Together they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A large part of the excavated Hieropolis is a necropolis, city of the dead. Sarcophagi are strewn everywhere. Granted, several earthquakes over the centuries have caused the disarray.
This tiny red bug looks like he's wearing a waiter's vest.
Another example of now varied the climate was. Pamukkale is in another mountainous region with pine trees.
You can see people working along that road. They are doing some general landscaping. Hieropolis was once run over and built over with hotels! And a road went right up to the travertines. Since becoming a UNESCO site, all of that rubbish was removed and the site restored.
These tumuli were my favorite part. Essentially, they are graves mounded over with earth, dirt, stones, etc. This form of burial is found all over the world. It's amazing that we still have examples of this burial method dating from the Roman Empire.
I love lizards.
We are approaching Domitian's Gate, named for Emperor Domitian, the last emperor of the Flavian Dynasty. He ruled form 81 to 96.
The line of columns just on the other side of the gate mark the spot of a large latrine. 
Looking up toward the theatre. Built during the reign of Emperor Hadrian in the second century AD. I didn't trek up to visit but I've read about the wonders it contains on the inside, in spite of its plain outward appearance. 
I liked how the line of the plane cut across the line of the trees.
The Basilica Bath just on the other side of the gate.
I like this shot because you can see how the brick facade was covered in marble.
Ruins of the ancient aqueducts. Some of us would go scrambling over these later as we try to find out way back to the bus.
It's impossible to capture in a photo the grand scale of the River Menderes Valley. Historically, the Menderes is the Maeandor or Meander River.
Later at the hotel, I didn't know whether to dry my hair with this or detail my car.
Return to Main Page or go straight to Day 11 - Aphrodisias to Kuşadası.
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