A Roman theatre seen from the top rows: curved stone seats around a round grassy floor, with the tall stage building and a green plain beyondCity & necropolis
Photo: Daniel CULSAN · CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)
Ancient cities · Denizli

Hierapolis

UNESCO World HeritageHellenistic–Byzantinein Pamukkale

A Roman spa town on top of the white travertine terraces of Pamukkale, entered along a road lined with tombs. World Heritage, together with the travertines, since 1988.

Plan the visitHow to get thereRead its tale

Plan your visit

Time to allow
About half a day

For a first visit at an easy pace.

Stay in
Pamukkale

The place is in town.

On a trip
Ephesus to the travertines

Day 4 of 4.

Hours and tickets
Check before you go

Opening hours and prices change: see muze.gov.tr (opens in a new tab).

Times are our estimates. Distances are straight lines.

Where it is and how to get there

In south-west Türkiye, in Denizli province, on a terrace above the valley of the Çürüksu (the ancient Lycus), next to the village of Pamukkale. Denizli, the provincial town, is less than 20 km to the south.

By busDenizli is where long-distance buses arrive, and minibuses (dolmuş) run on from its bus station to Pamukkale.
Where to stayPamukkale village below the terraces, and the thermal hotels around it, are the usual bases. Denizli is the bigger town.

Open in OpenStreetMap (opens in a new tab) · Directions to Hierapolis (opens in a new tab)

The walk, with what you’re looking at

The ancient city sits on a terrace above the white travertine terraces, and its sights are spread along a long street and out among the tombs. The stops below follow the springs first and then the ruins: it is a long walk.

  1. The travertine terraces

    White limestone steps with shallow pools, laid down by hot springs running down the hillside. Most of the terraces are closed to protect them, and only marked stretches can be walked.

  2. The Roman baths and the museum

    The big vaulted baths now hold the Hierapolis Archaeological Museum: sarcophagi, statues and finds from Hierapolis and the towns around it.

  3. The Antique Pool

    A warm spring-fed pool where fallen marble columns lie under the water. You can swim among them, for a fee.

  4. The Temple of Apollo and the Ploutonion

    Only foundations and a few broken columns of the temple remain. Beside it is the Ploutonion, a shrine to Pluto, god of the underworld, where carbon dioxide rises from a cave. The ancients called it a gate to the underworld. The gas is dangerous, so stay behind the barriers.

  5. The theatre

    Cut into the hillside and built ahead of a visit by Emperor Hadrian in AD 129. The stage building still stands.

  6. The main street and the Frontinus Gate

    A long paved street with a colonnade on both sides, entered at its northern end through the Frontinus (or Domitian) Gate, a triple arch between two round towers.

  7. The necropolis and St Philip’s Martyrium

    Beyond the north gate, tombs of many shapes (house-like tombs, sarcophagi and mounds) line the old road for about 2 km. Among them stands the ruined, octagonal Martyrium, built in memory of Philip the apostle.

the tale of

Hierapolis

A holy city of hot water. Springs, a cave that breathed deadly gas and a Roman spa town built over them: the ruins stand on top of the white terraces of Pamukkale.

Hellenistic and Roman, 330 BC–AD 330 →

  1. 7th century BC
    A cave and a goddess

    The Phrygians raise a temple to the mother goddess Cybele by a hot spring and a cave. Poisonous gas rises from the cave, and people come to think of it as a gateway to the underworld.

  2. 2nd century BC
    The holy city

    A spa town grows up by the hot springs under the kings of Pergamon, and takes the name Hierapolis, “holy city”.

  3. AD 60
    The great earthquake

    An earthquake in Nero’s reign flattens the city, one of many that hit it. It is rebuilt on a grid, like a Roman city, and most of what you see dates from this rebuilding.

  4. About AD 80
    St Philip

    The apostle Philip, one of Jesus’s disciples, is said to be put to death here. Later an octagonal church, the Martyrium, is built in his memory, and Hierapolis becomes a centre of Christianity.

  5. AD 129
    A theatre for an emperor

    The theatre is built ahead of a visit by Emperor Hadrian.

  6. From the 4th century AD
    A Christian city

    Hierapolis is a centre of Christianity and is later made a metropolis, the seat of a leading bishop.

  7. 7th century AD
    Another earthquake

    A strong earthquake brings down much of the city, which never fully recovers.

  8. 13th–14th centuries
    A small town, then nothing

    Under the Seljuks it is a small town. After another earthquake in the 14th century it is given up.

  9. 1988
    World Heritage

    UNESCO lists Hierapolis together with the Pamukkale travertines, as both a cultural and a natural site.

  10. After 1988
    The hotels go

    Hotels that had been built on the plateau among the ruins are taken down. One hotel pool is kept, and it is now the Antique Pool.

Photographs

6 photographs from Wikimedia Commons, each with its author and licence.

Pale limestone terraces holding turquoise pools, with a stone channel of water in the foreground and a village and a lake in the haze below

Photo: shankar s. from Dubai, united arab emirates · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)

A clear green-blue pool among trees, with broken marble columns lying on the bottom and a few bathers in the water

Photo: shankar s. from Dubai, united arab emirates · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)

A worn paved street with columns and small stone arches along it, and cypress trees behind

Photo: Dosseman · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)

A crowd of stone tombs and sarcophagi, some shaped like little houses, under a grey sky with pine-covered hills behind

Photo: shankar s. from Dubai, united arab emirates · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)

Steps and fallen columns of the Temple of Apollo on a green hillside, with two columns still standing and hills behind

Photo: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany · CC BY-SA 2.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)

Good to know

  • The ministry lists the travertines and the ancient city together on one page, and the Archaeological Museum on a page of its own: see muze.gov.tr for both.
  • The terraces are fragile and only parts of them are open: keep to the marked areas.
  • Swimming in the Antique Pool costs extra, on top of the site.
  • The famous sarcophagus with a picture of a water-powered stone saw (the earliest known crank and connecting rod) is not always on display.
  • Laodicea, another ancient city, lies across the valley and has its own page on this site.
  • The ministry runs an audio guide for the site: see its page on muze.gov.tr.
first

Earliest known machine with a crank and connecting rod. Hierapolis sawmill relief (sarcophagus of Marcus Aurelius Ammianos), 3rd century AD. Confirmed How sure we are →

From here

Also nearby

  • 10 km
    Laodicea on the Lycus

    City, Hellenistic–Byzantine

  • 19 km
    Colossae

    Höyük / city, Phrygian–Roman

  • museum
    Hierapolis Archaeology Museum

    Roman sarcophagi and statues

  • museum
    Laodikeia Museum (Denizli)

Location precise · Source (opens in a new tab)