The travertine terraces of Pamukkale

Up close, the famous white is not snow and not marble. It is travertine, a soft rock left behind by the thermal springs that rise through the hill. The water comes up warm and loaded with calcium; as it cools and spreads down the slope it drops that calcium as a chalky crust, building the rims, basins and frozen-waterfall shapes one thin layer at a time. What you are walking on is the spring writing itself onto the hillside.

Walking the terraces

You climb the white slope barefoot. Shoes would scratch and stain the travertine, so everyone carries them and wades the marked path in a few centimetres of warm water. It feels strange for the first minute and completely natural after that.

• Where the water runs, the surface is ridged and surprisingly grippy.
• Where it is dry, the white can be slick and hard, so slow down and watch your footing.
• Give yourself time. This is a walk to linger on, not to power through.

Full pools, empty pools

One thing worth knowing before you go: not every basin is full. The site rotates the flow to protect the formation, so on any given day some pools are brimming and blue while whole sections sit dry and bone-white. Both are beautiful, but if your heart is set on the mirror-pool photo, aim for the lower terraces where water tends to collect, and be ready to move along the path to find the full ones.

The right light

The terraces face the afternoon sun and the white throws it right back, so midday is the harsh, crowded low point. Come in the first hour after opening for cool, quiet, empty-pool photographs, or in the last hours before closing, when the day-trip coaches leave and the low sun turns the whole slope gold. For the full breakdown of season and hour, see when to visit.

Right above you: Hierapolis

The terraces do not end at the top of the slope. They spill straight into Hierapolis, the Roman spa city, its theatre, its long colonnaded street and the swimmable Antique Pool. Most tickets cover both, so plan to keep walking upward rather than turning back at the rim.