Long Day Pays Off with Stunning Visits to Distant Turkish Ruins
Days 37-38, 2026 Fall Atlantic Sampler
Sunday and Monday, Nov. 1-2, 2026; Bodrum and Kusadaşi, Turkey.
I expected to see bright turquoise water in the pools of the Pamukkale Travertines. Had I done my homework, I probably would have known that many of the pools are dry. The stunning online photographs are probably decades old, taken under cloudless blue skies and later color-enhanced.
Light rain showers welcomed us to the famous white pools created by calcium-rich thermal water cascading down a hillside. At one time all the pools were full of water, but climate change over recent years has dried up most of them.
Warm water flowed through a channel and spilled over to allow tourists to walk barefoot over a few shallow pools. I decided it was too slippery to risk and just watched from under my umbrella in the off-and-on mist.
This was the far point of the 11-hour private tour I joined in Kusadaşi, Turkey. Most passengers headed to the nearby ruins of Ephesus, which are amazing, but I was there in 2007 and again two years ago. On last year’s port calls to Kusadaşi I simply walked along the beach and into the markets. So when a fellow passenger sought others to join a tour to the Pamukkale Travertines, I signed up despite the length of the tour.
Ruins of the ancient city of Hierapolis sit on the hill above the pools. It dates back as far as the 3rd century BC, with subsequent settlements of Phrygians, Greeks, Romans, Persians and Byzantines drawn by the hot springs. Had we more time and less rain, I could have taken a dip in Cleopatra’s Pool with its submerged columns or climbed the hill to see the partially restored theater.
We started our morning with a 60-mile drive to Aphrodisias, another ancient city that was known for its schools of sculpture and philosophy. It lies within an earthquake zone, which has left much of the city in ruins, which are easily accessible.
We walked past the remnants of the Temple of Aphrodite, an auditorium used for government meetings, baths, houses and eventually to the large stadium. At almost 900-feet long, I suggested no one let Jerry Jones see it, as he might be inspired to build a newer Cowboys stadium.
I quickly paused to sketch a section of it before catching up with the group, which had moved on to the museum housing reliefs and statues.
Between our visits to the ancient cities, we stopped in the small town of Denizli, where tourists frequently stay for longer visits to the area. Thermal activity spreads to the center of traffic circles.
Our goal was lunch of Turkish pizza, which I hadn’t heard of before but found very good. The crust is rolled thin into a large oblong shape, and once the filling is added, the sides are folded up to make the edge. It’s then cut into thin slices. Fillings included beef, cheese and vegetables.
As I’ve written before, I much prefer four-hour tours, with the occasional seven- or eight-hour tour thrown in. I thought long and hard before signing up to join about eight fellow cruisers for this long tour. But I had grown bored with just walking around the center of Kusadaşii, with its many rug factories (if you don’t have a home, you don’t need a rug) and stores selling “fake genuine watches,” according to one sign. The fact that we were in port for nearly 13 hours gave me a rare opportunity to journey farther afield. There is so much to see in Turkey, which truly is a crossroads between Europe and Asia, and its people are welcoming and friendly.
All that being said, the day before I declared it a ship day and didn’t go ashore in Bodrum, Turkey. Last year I walked the mile-plus beachfront road to the Castle of St. Peter, built by the Knights Hospitaller, which I sketched from a coffee shop along the way. This time I started the morning in the ship’s Crow’s Nest, as usual, and just kept moving from one computer project to another. My sisters, who hadn’t been to Bodrum before, set off on my same walk and didn’t even make it to the castle, as they ran into friends enjoying local wines and beer.
