Hot Springs and Ruins

On the 1st of August the group from Recine, a few workers and I left for a road trip to the Agean Region of Turkey. Our first stop was at a hotel outside of Hieropolis. It took about a 6-8 hour drive to get there so we stayed the night and just got to chill before we got to find out what was in store for us the next day. The hotel was pretty cool though. There was a belly dancer and some cool mud pools overlooking the actual pool. The mud baths though were somewhat inviting. It was a blissful place with women wearing bikinis while in their beginning stages of obesity posing on fake rocks, while some European men, sporting their high and tight speedos, helped the woman with the exfoliation process (that sounded dirty). Well I hope that visual wasnt awkward.

Anyways, the next day we drove to Hierapolis, also known as Pamukkale, whose name means the sacred city. This is the place where apparently the apostle Phillip was martyred. Also Paul had done some work in Heirapolis according to Colassians 4:13.

Hierapolis was and is still known today for their hot springs. The people of the ancient time believed that these Hot springs had magical healing power. So many would come far and wide to rest in the spring water in hope for curing some of their ailments. The Hot springs made these whit pools on the side of the mountain that Hierapolis was on. The pools where so white that they looked as if they where covered in snow. It was the chemicals and minerals in the water though that made this so. As I traveled through these pools, that first started barely covering my ankles, the water got deeper and warmer. The water was incredibly refreshing and I am pretty sure that was the first time i had been in a real hot spring. There have definately been a lot of firsts on this trip thus far.

This place is full of history and magnificent Greek beliefs concerning the gods, philosophy on life and things like that. I also saw some amazing architecture in the ruins such as temples, a fortress, a gymnasium, the ampatheatre, gates, walls, and cold pools that had ancient ruins in them, everything easily captivated me. It was such a pleasure to just imagine what life must have been like in this time period. Everything was so precise. The cut stones and columns and sculptures, it was a dream of mine to see a lot of what i did. It was so fun being able to see and climb on these ancient ruins (no mom I wasn't doing anything illegal, atleast to my knowledge).