Denizli/ Laodikeia, PAMUKKALE, Hieropolis

Although probably most of you preferred to read this post because of Pamukkale, I decided to start with Laodikea as it was the main city and both Pamukkale (the coton white stone balcoons) and the town of Hieropolis were its summer holiday places.

the ruins of the temples region of Laodikeia

Laodikeia was one of the most important and famous cities of Anatolia at 1^st century BC. It was an important textile center famous with its sheep's wool which meant fashion for rich women and men at that century. The city was distroyed by a big earthquake at 60 AC. This was not the first one which hit Laodikeia but as the history says, the last one. One of the seven churchs of revelation, St. Paul's Church is also at Laodikeia which shows how important was cristianity at this ancient city during Roman times. Unfortunately the excavation of the church was still on so that I couldn't see it and I had to postpone visiting it to another time.

The first excavation of the ancient city Laodikeia was started at 1960's by a canadian professor, Jean des Gagniers and that time on, the excavations are still proceeding by turkish archeologists. It's told to me that it will take like 500 years to finish the excavation totaly and the archeologists think that Laodikea is even bigger than Ephesus. But the part of the city that has now come to light is enough to show the wealth and size of this ancient city to the visitors.

main street of Laodikeia

ruins of the public bath

the excavation area and the western gate of the city

 I should admit that before visiting Laodikeia, I wasn't expecting to see a magnificence of an ancient city which can easily compete with the attraction of Ephesus. This place will be my life long visiting area as I'll be able to find out new things, buildings, places, temples... etc at each of them.

The main thoroughfare of  Hieorpolis

Hieropolis is the ancient city which is also the entrance to the healing waters of Pamukkale's cotton like balconies. It is also the summer holiday place especially for the wealty people of Laodikeia. Its large necropolis contains more than 1200 graves and tombs which are the most fastinating examples of that century. It has a large amphitheather with a capacity of 15,000 people which remains standing, the temple of Apollon and hot spring pools. The museum contains large varioty of examples of decoration, money, sculptures and information about the city.

temple of Apollon

hot spring pools

king tombs

necropolis of Hieropolis

examples of column decoration

amphitheater

And the magnificent Pamukkale... The cotton balconies of healing spring water is now a World Heritage Site.

Pamukkale terraces

 Nowadays the valume of hot spring water is managed by the engineers because it causes some slipping accidents for the tourists who want to walk on them. This also causes some damage to the terraces. They start to get dry and turning black and you can see less water than you expect. But still, you can enjoy sitting in warm water and walking from terrace to terrace. It's not allowed to walk with shoes though. You have to be bare feet to enjoy this visit.

The reason of this cotton white terraceses is the minerals of carbonate remains of the hot spring water. Inspite of the soft look, the ground is pretty hard and easy to walk on.

You can reach to Pamukkale with a 20 minutes ride by minibus from Denizli.

the part started to turn black due to lack of water

hot spring water terrace

a general look to Pamukkale

hot spring water contains carbonat minerals

hundreds of tourist visits Pamukkale everyday

visitors enjoying the hot spring water