Kaklık Cave

Natural Wonder / Scenery

The “underground Pamukkale”: snow-white travertine steps formed by sulphurous water inside a collapsed-roof cave.

In the Honaz district of Denizli, only half an hour from Pamukkale, the Kaklık Cave is popularly called the “underground Pamukkale” — and the name is entirely apt. The cave’s roof collapsed over time, letting light in; the sulphurous thermal water welling up inside has, exactly as at Pamukkale, deposited calcium carbonate to form snow-white travertine pools in steps. The difference: here the sight meets you not on an open plain but inside a cave, beneath stalactites and stalagmites.

The cave interior is cool year-round and the smell of sulphur is distinct; wooden platforms, stairs and lighting have been provided for visitors. White travertines, green mosses and shafts of light seeping from above combine into a quite extraordinary scene. The sulphur in the water is believed to benefit skin complaints, and small pools fed by it lie outside the cave. It does not compete with Pamukkale in scale — it is a small, compact stop — but added to the Pamukkale–Laodicea route it tells an entirely different geological story.