Closer Look at the Travertine Terraces at Pamukkale

While the travertine terraces at Pamukkale are a sight to behold, I can’t help but be a little disappointed because the terraces themselves are dry. If you look at tourism photos of Pamukkale, you will no doubt see these terraces filled with blue water. This is not how it is now. From my understanding, the water has been diverted away supposedly to conserve the sight. I don’t understand how this work because this would me that the terraces would stop growing because the calcium carbonate that is used to grow the terraces will be no more. I have read elsewhere that the water has been diverted because it is needed to support the increasing local population.

If this is true, it would be a huge shame. The people shouldn’t be allowed to stay here since there isn’t enough water to go around. Heat here in this region is so much that the water that is here would evaporate away in no time. To reduce the water supply of the travertine terraces even more because of people would be too much. I would think that it would have been better to not allow more houses to be built here so as not to further strain the water supply. It is already a dry region here and adding more people would not help ease the supply one bit. To add insult to injury, there is even a water park just outside the park.

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