Lycus River Hotel

Our stay at Pamakkale was in the Lycus river Hotel, a huge complex with natural thermal baths and pools. After a couple of days on the road, spending some time in the thermal baths was refreshing and ...

... to the Roman theatre, which was capable of seating more than 12,000 spectators. We went to our hotel mid-afternoon.  The hotel we stayed in, Lycus River, was lovely and had a thermal pool and and spa.  It had started raining at the end of our ...

... area is also Pamukkale.)With Colossae and Laodicea, Hierapolis became part of the tri-city area of the Lycus River valley. Hierapolis was located across the river from the other two cities and was noted for its textiles, especially wool. ...

... to get anywhere north of Beirut, one first needs to cross the Narh al-Kalb, or what was in ancient times known as the Lycus River, an almost insurmountable river crossing. Or so suggest the multiple inscriptions in the rocks along the river, of conquerors ...

... (of which more later) via Nahr Al-Kalb. This is a gorge where successive armies have been forced to cross the Lycus River in perilously exposed single file. Those that made it across have carved stelae in the canyon walls in thanks. Nebuchadnezzar ...

... of love. We viewed theatre, temple ruins, odean, and a huge stadium. Nearby museum had many statues etc. On to the Lycus River region the location of 3 nearby cities. We visited Laodicea one of the 7 churches mentioned in Revelations. Site excavations ...

... it was still amazing. It is the only one left in the world since the one in New Zealand was destroyed. We then went to our hotel which was not too far. The hotel actually has a warm thermal pool of it's own that we went swimming in, which was refreshing. ...

Amazing limestone formations and thermal calcium ...

Leaving Izmir we headed east for Pamukkale(meaning cotton castle).  Here we toured the ancient Greek and Roman hot springs at Hieropolis in present day Pamukkale.  Besides the wonderful ruins (and especially the necropolis) we saw beautiful ...