Hierapolis

Hierapolis Ancient City

Hierapolis, an ancient spa city in the Roman and Eastern Roman (Byzantine) periods and included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, is located 20 km away from Denizli city center. This region is known as Pamukkale, home to a world-famous marvel of calcite travertine filled with warm, mineral-rich waters. 

Pamukkale is a popular thermal center; its calcium and iron rich waters are believed to have healing properties. Hierapolis, above Pamukkale was founded by the King of Bergama Eumenies II in the 2nd century BCE and it is believed to honor the name of Hiera, the wife of Telephos, the legendary founder of ancient Pergamum.

The city grew and stood out thanks to its hot springs. In Hierapolis, you can see baths, temples and ruins of ancient theater. You can swim in the Cleopatra Pool, a spring rumored that the Egyptian Queen took a bath.

Hierapolis, the city where Saint Philippus, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, was killed, is one of the sacred settlements in terms of Christianity.

It was declared a religious center in the century in the 4th century CE, and during the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) period, became Episcopal Center. The Tomb of St. Phillipus and the Martyrium, unearthed as a result of excavations in the ancient city, are among the sacred structures of Christianity.

The old Roman bath located in Hierapolis has now been converted to Hierapolis Archeology Museum. You can visit the various archaeological finds unearthed in and around Hierapolis in the halls of the museum with stone blocks made of travertine.

In the archaeological excavations carried out in Hierapolis, the Plutonium Sanctuary (Hell’s Gate) and the entrance of the cave, which was accepted as the “gateway to the land of the dead” in the ancient world where they were unearthed. In the antiquity, in which the pagan belief was dominant, Hierapolis means “Holy City”. This name: comes from the existence of a cave through which thermal waters and gas (carbon dioxide) that causes the deaths of living beings coming close to it escape. Because of these features, the cave was regarded as the entrance to the underworld, where the god Pluto and his wife Persophone ruled. Around the cave was placed a sanctuary, a great touristic visit in Antiquity and built between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd century CE. Visitors to this sanctuary include Cicero, Emperor Hadrian, and Caracalla, the philosopher Damascus, as the most famous.

Visitors dropped birds into the cave, and they were immediately poisoned to death.

The building complex, unearthed as a result of the excavations carried out in the 2013 excavation season in the Plutonion Sanctuary (Hell’s Gate), constitutes a unique site in the world. In excavations, it enabled the original source of thermal waters that created famous Pamukkale travertine pools to be brought to light. In addition, it led to the discovery of the sanctuary built around the cave, where the carbon anhydride gas that caused the death of small animals and birds that approached.

Among the most valuable artifacts found in the excavation are a marble head of the goddess Aphrodite and a marble Dionysos Statue, made in Hellenistic time, with a special hair system and two holes in her ear for wearing gold earrings. In addition, the most extraordinary find is a marble snake statue and a marble statue of Kerberos, taken out of the water and protecting the entrance to the cave.

The three-headed “Hell Dog of Hades”, a unique work in the world in terms of its height Marble Kerberos statue at 1.30 m., stands at the Gate of Hell according to mythology.

During the summer, the ancient city remains accessible until 22:30.