Pamukkale, Turkey · Watercolour Postcard

Everyone comes for the white travertine terraces and their warm turquoise pools, but a few steps up the hill, in the ruins of Hierapolis, is a small stone doorway the Romans called the gate to hell. The ground there leaks volcanic carbon dioxide that pools into an invisible lake along the floor. Priests once led bulls to it and watched them as they themselves walked out unharmed, standing tall with their heads above the gas. Lost for centuries, the vent was found again in 2013, still deadly. This A6 art postcard marks Pamukkale, Turkey.

Part of the Postcards Home series: a growing collection of original illustrated postcards, each rooted in a real place, ready to write and send.