You are my Hiera!

Cotton Castle

Cotton Castle is the meaning of Pamukkale, our next destination. Located in the Province of Denizli, the city contains hot springs and terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. Departed around 8pm from Konya, the 7-hour journey made us arrive at 4am in a freaking cold morning. However, the journey on bus was not endured without story though. I met Osman, a guy who sat beside me. The guy was super friendly and seemingly can’t stop talking. The master’s degree student in a local university said to me that he wanted to practice English as much as he can. Since most Turkey’s population hardly speaks English, the chance of meeting a tourist like me is like a jackpot for him.

 

 Kita minum dulu..

 Kat benda-benda putih ni tak boleh pakai kasut, kaki ayam adalah wajib

 I learnt that he is an Attartuk’s loyalist. It’s not a surprise since in Turkey, Attartuk is considered as the founding father of modern Republic of Turkey, a freedom fighter that liberated the country from its enemy during the World War 1. In addition, he mentioned that a country’s administration should be separated from religious influence. Clearly this guy is Islam by default, but a secular in heart and mind. He also mentioned that man are free to do whatever he wish without any restriction and proudly proclaimed that he often consume alcoholic drinks. All this while I have been reading about the secularist from others, especially through saifulislam.com and now I experience it by myself. Clearly in Turkey there are two groups of people, the muslim fundamentalist and the muslim secularist. Oh for your info, 99% of Turkey’s population is Muslim.

 Miss Kubra Khatijah explaining the city of Hierapolis

 At The Roman Theater

Osman was clueless when asked about the Uthmaniyah Civilization. I asked him how he is not proud of his country’s 700 years of golden era, a daulah which spread as far as Austria in the Europe, Algeria in the Northern Africa as well as Mecca in the Middle East. Clearly the few years of Attartuk’s reign had successfully brainwashed the people and mould a secular set of thinking until today.

 

Arch of Domitian

This is..tiang tegak

We decided to join a tour package of Pamukkale which include a stopover at a popular hot spring, a walkover the terraces of travertine and also a visit to Hierapolis, an ancient Greco-Roman city which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. We were excited (especially zaki) to know that our tour guide for the day is Miss X (I forgot her name and will put her real name when I regain my memory :P ). Of course everybody loves anything beautiful and we are not excluded. Highlight of the tour is definitely the Hierapolis. The city comprises of the Sacred Pool, Roman Theatre, colonnaded street called the Plateia, which ran from the Arch of Domitian to the south gate, tombs and also stuffs that I can’t recognize.

 The Sacred Pool. Watch out the Ancient Pillars and Marble at the bottom of the pool!

Next, Selcuk