Welcome to another beautiful morning. Today, I’m in a bus traveling through the amazing roads and landscape, on a journey from Goreme to my next destination – Pamukkale.

I finally reached Pamukkale and I was on my way to Laodicea, a very ancient city from the Roman periods. This place is located in the same region as the Pamukkale White travertine terraces. I am not a history buff and I don’t like to go into the deep details about history. However, I like exploring historical ruins.

At the ancient city of Laodicea, you can see lots of ruins here. Lots of columns from the ancient times. It is very sunny there.

It is the largest historical ruin I have seen so far. The area is pretty vast with remains of hundreds of ancient buildings and columns. This archaeological musuem contains ruins of several churches, amphitheater and lots of bricks and structures from the ancient times. Just look how deep they had to dig to excavate these things. All of these structures were under the soil. The excavation was still going on when I was there and they have been finding new ruins even in the recent years. It is literally mind-blowing to see the size of the buildings that ancient people used to make. These ruins are nothing short of impressive.

It was too hot there, you could barely take off the sun glasses. But I think if we explore this place in winter, it will be perfect.

Another impressive thing about Laodicea is the view from there. The whole region is situated in a plane land surrounded by huge mountains. You get a 360 degree view of the Pamukkale region and you can even see the hill of Pamukkale white terraces.

I loved the fact that we can walk over any place here in this archeological gold mine. The fact that we can even touch those millions of years old rocks is just amazing.

Laodicea was a very wealthy city in ancient days and it is even mentioned in the Bible.

After spending a couple of hours in Laodicea, I took a taxi to go to Pamukkale. When I saw the Pamukkale white hill from Laodicea, I thought it was pretty small. But as I got closer, I was amazed by its true size.

From the distance, it looks like a hill covered in the snow but as you step in, you will see that it is actually a white rock. The white color comes from the white carbonate minerals deposited by the flowing water from the hot springs. The place was packed with tourists. Yet, the water was pretty clean.

Walking on these white rocks with the flowing water was an interesting feeling. The rock is pretty hard and can easily cut your skin if you are not careful. The water flowing peacefully over these rocks under the rays of the evening sun revealed some beautiful patterns. I enjoyed my time climbing up the Pamukkale white hill. I thought the white travertine was the only thing to see here. But I was so wrong.

On the top of the Pamukkale hill lies the ruins of the ancient Greek city known as Hierapolis. Hierapolis is also a former wealthy city covering a large area. There are also museums showcasing the findings from the excavations there.

The main attractions in the ruins of the Hierapolis are the Temple of Apollo and the theater. The excavations are still going on there and who knows what else they will find there. It is definitely not an easy walk to explore the ruins of Hierapolis. You have to walk a lot and in the summer heat, it can be even more tiring. There is a lot to explore here.

Even though it looked like a sunny day, it was already 7 after evening. I decided to turn back.

Hierapolis is officially the largest archaeological site I have ever visited. This is too big. You need at least a one full day to properly see all the archaeological ancient things. I’m very impressed.

I will be coming back to Hierapolis and Pamukkale again probably in the winter.

On the way down, the sun was still shining bright as if it was only 3 pm in the evening. The rays of the evening Sun added to the beauty of the Pamukkale Hill and the plane lands between the mountains. The vastness of the lands here was very impressive. This is the kind of landscape that made me fall in love with Turkey.

It was my last day of my summer trip and I was more than satisfied with what I got to explore in the last couple of days. I took a bus from Pamukkale to Istanbul and boarded my flight back to home in Kerala as I dreamed of my next trip.