CHRHAD World

Monday, 2 July 2012 (second half) After lunch that day, we got into the bus and continued our journey for about three and a half hours to the town of Pamukkale in another province, Denizli, famous for its Hierapolis historical site. Pamukkale itself means "The Cotton Castle" and it is named so because of the long-established textile industries within the area as well as the natural features formed by hot springs and the limestone formation from its mountainous area, shaping what is called white travertine. Meanwhile, Hierapolis (in Greek,  hieron : holy place, temple;   polis : city) is the name of an ancient city built by the hot springs area on the hill during the Hellenistic and Roman period. The city was important for worship and of course, for spa, on which ancient people used for relaxing and for medical purpose. Ümit posing in front of the bird-eye view map of Hierapolis site Remains of the ancient city inside the historic site In the modern day, ...

Sunday, 1 July 2012 On that day, our group left the not-so-good hotel in Çanakkale. The destination to visit would be İzmir city and remains of Selçuk, which took more than half day to get to the first destination and another one hour to the next, still within the İzmir Province. According to the seven geographical regions of Turkey, both are included in Aegean Region (Ege in Turkish), named after the Aegean Sea. On our way to İzmir city, we took one toilet stop (not sure where, maybe Edremit?) and another lunch stop at Bergama (Pergamon) which also had ancient city. It was not on our itinerary, however. As usual, Ümit gave us "lecture" during the beginning of the journey. The topic of the day, if I am not mistaken was social life, including the work and salary of Turkish people, living cost and its element, as well as comparison between the urban and rural live. He also told us about how he got his career as tourist guide. In addition to it, after the first stop, he al...