Pamukkale

Shoes come off at the edge and the terraces are walked barefoot, to keep the crust whole. The water is switched between sections from year to year, so a pool that was full last season may be dry. The surface is slippery and sharp in places, so tread slowly.

A whole Roman and Byzantine city stands directly above the terraces. A colonnaded street runs straight north to south with bath houses and church ruins along both sides. Midday is hard going because almost no shade survives up there.

Columns toppled by earthquakes lie submerged and you swim between them. It is priced apart from the site ticket and puts a limit on your time in the water. Bubbles rise from the floor all through it, and the water is warm enough that you will not last long.

Reliefs survive in several tiers on the stage wall, down to the folds of the clothing. The seating is dug back into the slope, and from the highest rows the plain beyond the terraces comes into view too.

Carbon dioxide leaks up through the ground here and settles along the floor. The ancients took the spot for a mouth of the underworld that only priests could enter. A railing closes it off now, and it is not one to climb over.

Something like two thousand tombs run along either side of the road that leaves the city northward. People came for the water and many did not recover, which is why the burial ground outgrew the town.

The same spring water surfaces here with iron in it, so the deposits set red and ochre instead of white. Ten minutes by road from Pamukkale, and far quieter.

Spring water rises inside the cave and lays small lime terraces down on the floor. That is why it goes by the underground Pamukkale. The steps are wet and slick, and the damp fogs your glasses.

Digging goes on here, so the part that is open changes between visits. A main street, two theatres and a church have been uncovered, with re-erected columns along the way. It is open ground with no shade, so carry water.

A Seljuk caravanserai of 1253, with the build year cut into the inscription over the main arch.

The galleries occupy a Roman bath house, walls and vaults intact. Reliefs that dressed the theatre's stage front share the rooms with sarcophagi dug up nearby. It stands mid-site above the terraces, and the massive stone keeps it cool in summer.

Tradition holds the apostle Philip died here, and an octagonal memorial rose in the 5th century. In 2011 Italian excavators announced they had found his tomb in a church beside it. It crowns the hill on the site's east side, up a long, steep stone stair.

Once famed for its sculptors' workshops, this Roman city joined UNESCO's list in 2017. Look for the Tetrapylon gateway, a stadium keeping nearly every seat, and the Sebasteion's imperial reliefs. The round trip from Pamukkale is nearly four hours of road.

A hill town northwest of Denizli known for Buldan cloth, cotton woven on hand looms. Ottoman timber houses survive along its lanes, and every shopfront hangs towels and tablecloths. A few workshops still run the old looms.

From Tekkekoy village on Denizli's south edge, a cable car climbs to a pine-forested plateau. Campsites, cabins and tea gardens up top draw residents fleeing summer heat. On clear days the city and its plain spread below.