Calcite-laden watets from hot spring, emerging from a cliff almost 200 metres high overlooking the plain, have createda visually stunning landscape a t pamukkale. These mineralized waters have generated a series of petrified waterfalls, stalactites and pools with step-like terraces, some of which are less than meter in height while other areas high as six meters. Fresh deposits of calcium carbonate give these formations a dazzling white coating. The turkish name Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle", is derived from this striking landscape.