Pamukkale (Turkey)

The town of Pamukkale (which means "cotton castle" in Turkish) is home to the spectacular travertines as well as the ancient city of Hierapolis, and is the most famous attraction in the natural spa region of Turkey.

The town itself is nothing special, and we wondered if we'd made a mistake coming here when we arrived on a dull and rainy evening. However, we awoke the next day to glorious sunshine and found the travertines just a few minutes walk away.

The landscape is stunning, with sparkling white travertine terraces and pools full of clear blue water hugging the ridge above the town. The travertines are made of calcium carbonate and are formed when the warm mineral water reaches the surface and deposits calcium. Despite our guidebook telling us we couldn't swim in the travertine pools we saw heaps of visitors bathing in the waters so we quickly joined in!

We also visited the sprawling ruins of Hierapolis which are situated on the hill right above the travertines. This ancient city was once a popular health & spa centre during the Roman period due to the supposed healing qualities of it's calcium-rich water. The centre of the city was probably originally the Sacred Pool, which you can still swim in today amid submerged sections of original marble.

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Ephesus (Turkey)

One of our Turkey highlights was visiting this ancient city which is incredibly well-preserved. In Roman times Ephesus was a great trading city with a population of around 250,000 (the 2nd largest city in the world back then) and home to the Apostles Paul and John, among others.

Some of the most interesting sights were the towering Library of Celsus which was built around 125AD and used to hold 12,000 scrolls, the Great Theatre which held up to 25,000 spectators, the 2-story high Terraced Houses which housed the rich and had walls covered in frescoes and floors in mosaics, and the communal men's toilets which consisted of stone benches with holes cut into them (to sit on!) and drains beneath to carry away the waste.

We were amazed by how advanced and well planned this city was for its time - the Library of Celsus faces east so the reading rooms would get good morning light and was built with a 1m gap between the inner and outer walls to protect books from extremes of humidity and temperature; the streets had drainage channels for sewage and water beneath them; and the Terraced Houses had a clay pipe heating system beneath the floors and behind the walls as well as both hot and cold water!

After visiting here it's far easier for us to imagine what life was like back in Roman times!

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