This made a lot more sense in ancient times when a one in ten survival rate was still better than most doctors could claim. So it isn’t surprising that when the Ancients in what would eventually become Turkey discovered warm springs bubbling out of limestone they went nuts for it and built a spa town called Hierapolis right next to the source of these healthful waters. What is slightly more surprising is that the place is now a ruin rather than a thriving health resort.
And what an impressive ruin it is. There are Roman ruins heaped on top of earlier Greek ruins. There is an impressive set of Roman baths, now a museum containing relics dug up from the surrounding site. There’s also an extensive necropolis. As any medical practitioner will tell you the best place to find corpses is a hospital. People die there all the time. It’s the same with Hierapolis, being a centre of health and healing meant it attracted the sick and the dying. A goodly number of them never left.
One can still bathe in the warm mineral springs if you think it will do you any good. The occasional drowning aside it probably won’t do you any harm which is the first requirement for a medical treatment. I didn’t bother, deciding to treat my disease riddled body in the traditional manner, by paying a doctor to misinterpret my symptoms and prescribe some generic drugs that probably cause your colon to explode if you mix up the dosage. Medical science, as you can see, has moved on although its destination remains in doubt.
I did go to the theatre which is huge for the ancient world and amazingly well preserved given that the entire city was flattened by an earthquake. I managed to get a few good photos once we shoved the influencers out of the way.
By this time it was evening and we repaired to our hotel in nearby Pamukkale. This is a Turkish town that seems to exist so tourist buses heading for Hierapolis have somewhere to park. Our hotel had a pool that we didn’t swim in.
No comments:
Post a Comment