One of the most striking natural springs in the world, Pamukkale is located in Turkey’s Büyük Menderes Valley.
Pamukkale means ‘cotton castle’, and it’s easy to see why, the bright white minerals capturing the brilliant blue waters. These travertine pools of snow white limestone have been visited by people for well over 1,000 years, and remain one of Turkey’s most popular natural destinations.
We love the brilliant color, another example of nature showing off, and giving us more reason to explore and protect the world.
” The mineral springs that have cascaded down the hillside for thousands of years have created this extraordinary sight – Pamukkale means ‘cotton castle’ – in Turkey’s Büyük Menderes Valley. The series of natural pools of pale eau-de-nil water, cupped in shallow, organic-shaped basins of gleaming-white travertine, are terraced into the hillside, overspilling with the mineral-rich spring water that formed them and which appears to have frozen in time in petrified waterfalls, stalactites of limestone like wedding-cake icing dripping down the hillside.”
