Saturday, July 27, 2013

Egerszalok in Hungary a smaller version of Pamukkale in Turkey

We travelled to the northern town of Eger and decided to visit Egerszalok 8 km to the south-west which we thought was just another thermal bathing spot.  To our amazement, we found a mini version of Pamukkale in Turkey which is a site visited by thousands of tourists to see the travertines of carbonate minerals.  We loved Pamukkale.


It is quite a sight.  Cascades of very hot water running down from what look like steaming icebergs but are in fact mounds of salt and other mineral deposits.



The mounds are beautifully white and truly look like icebergs.




The hot springs and travertines, or terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water look wonderful in the photo below.  The hotel complex utilising the very hot spring water in the constructed pools is doing great business.


As I noted above, in Pamukkale thousands and thousands come and marvel at these springs, terraces and mounds of salt.  Here in tiny Egerszalok there are many Hungarians and the odd Slovaks and Poles enjoying a similar spectacle but relatively few tourists.  Egerszlok was a totally unexpected and marvellous discovery.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Andrew, hi Nicky. I came accross your blog looking for infos on Egerszalok. There isn't many online. I really want to see a white travertine terrace. Pamukkale seems the obvious choice, but I am not keen on Turkey otherwise. I am wondering can you walk on the travertine in Egerszalok? Most pictures I see seem to be have been taken from a distance whereas photos of Pamukkale show people walkig on them.

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  2. No Annick you can't walk on the ones at Egerszalok as you can in Pamukkale. The ones in Turkey are much more extensive and people do walk over them and probably damage them quite a bit too. In Hungary the travertines seem to be used more as a source of thermal hot water for bathing in a resort area than for admiring it seems to us. In Pamukkale there is a separate pool where they bathe too.

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