Hierapolis ancient city: where it is and what to see

Hierapolis is the ancient city on the ridge above the Pamukkale travertines, in Pamukkale district, Denizli province, about 16 km north of the centre of Denizli in a straight line (distances from OpenStreetMap). Macedonian Greeks founded it in the Hellenistic period. Its theatre, sanctuaries, colonnaded street, gates and walls are still on the hill, and so is the cave that Strabo called the Plutonium.

Site plan tap a stop

North is up. Each stop sits where OpenStreetMap places it. Distances are straight lines from the theatre, not path lengths.

TheatreSanctuary of ApolloPloutonionAntique PoolArchaeology MuseumFrontinus GateMartyrion of St. PhilipSouth Byzantine GatePamukkale travertines

1. TheatreDistances start here

   The theatre is on the east side of the site. In 2018 the Italian mission was excavating the houses next to it.

2. Sanctuary of Apolloabout 0.2 km west of the theatre

   The site board says the temple was dedicated to Apollo Lairbenos, the town’s principal god in the late Hellenistic period, and built over an active fault. A monumental fountain, the Nymphaeum of the temple, was added inside it in the Severan period.

3. Ploutonionabout 0.2 km west of the theatre

   Strabo describes an opening “large enough to admit a man”, full of a vapour so dense that one could scarcely see the ground. Bulls led in fell dead, and sparrows he threw in died at once; the eunuch priests of Cybele went in unharmed. The mission restored the sanctuary in 2018: the seating in front of the cave, columns of the portico and a base with a marble copy of the statue of Hades, with Cerberus.

4. Antique Poolabout 0.3 km west of the theatre

   The site board says the Ionic portico (1st century AD) of the civic agora next to the colonnaded street collapsed into a pool that formed in a fracture caused by an earthquake in the 7th century AD.

5. Archaeology Museumabout 0.5 km south-west of the theatre

   The Hierapolis Archaeology Museum stands beside the Central Baths (2nd century AD, per the site board). Price, MuseumPass and hours are on the museum page.

6. Frontinus Gateabout 0.8 km north-west of the theatre

   The site board says the proconsul Julius Frontinus built it (84–86) as a monumental entrance onto the main street, 14 m wide, which crossed the whole city and led out to the road to Laodicea on the Lykos. Beside it a tomb inscription reads: “Flavius Zeuxis, merchant, who sailed seventy-two trips around Cape Malea to Italy, built this.”

7. Martyrion of St. Philipabout 0.5 km north of the theatre

   The boards here name the Martyrion of St. Philip, the Church of the Sepulchre, a sanctuary fountain (agiasma) and an octagonal baths building.

8. South Byzantine Gateabout 0.5 km south of the theatre

   The Byzantine wall has its southern gate at the south end of the site. The board at the gate introduces the site: Hierapolis, Greek for “sacred city”.

9. Pamukkale travertinesabout 0.7 km south-west of the theatre

   The white terraces below the west edge of the site are the Pamukkale travertines. Strabo notes that the spring water “so easily congeals and changes into stone” that people led it through ditches to make stone fences.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL (checked 19.10.2026).

Five places close up

Each picture was drawn for this guide and matches a stop on the plan.

Four steps in its history

1. Founded by Macedonian GreeksA note from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Italian Archaeological Mission, which has worked at Hierapolis since 1957, says the city was founded by Macedonian Greeks in the Hellenistic period (3rd–2nd century BC). Near the north entrance is a Phrygian necropolis, found in 2016 by archaeologists of the Denizli Museum; structures there date to the 8th–7th century BC.
2. Described by StraboIn his Geography (13.4.14) Strabo names Hierapolis with its hot springs and the Plutonium. He says the water turns into stone, suits the dyeing of wool and fills the city with natural baths.
3. An earthquake in Nero’s reignTacitus (Annals 14.20 and 14.27) places the fall of Laodicea by an earthquake in the year of Nero’s fourth consulship, AD 60; the city recovered without help from Rome. Orosius, in the 5th century, lists Laodicea, Hierapolis and Colossae as three cities of Asia that fell in an earthquake in Nero’s reign.
4. Walls and a last churchA site board says the Northern Byzantine Gate belongs to a fortification system of Theodosian times (late 4th century), built of material reused from the agora. Another says the latest church identified on the site was built in the 10th–11th centuries and abandoned after the battle of Manzikert in 1071.

Tickets, pass and hours

Entry price, MuseumPass and opening hours for Hierapolis and Pamukkale are kept up to date on Turkpidya’s museum page.

Ask in Turkish

Show a phrase on your phone or say it yourself, at the ticket desk or at the museum.

Keep reading before you go

Sources

1. Strabo, Geography 13.4.14 (H. L. Jones, 1924) — Perseus Digital Library, checked 19.10.2026
2. Tacitus, Annals 14.20 and 14.27 (Church and Brodribb) — Perseus Digital Library, checked 19.10.2026
3. Orosius, History against the pagans 7.7.12 — The Latin Library, checked 19.10.2026
4. Italian archaeological mission on the Hierapolis site, 22 October 2018 — Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, checked 19.10.2026
5. Italian mission at Hierapolis of Phrygia — Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, checked 19.10.2026
6. Map data and site-board texts — OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL, checked 19.10.2026
7. Hierapolis and Pamukkale: ticket price and MuseumPass — Turkpidya museums tool, checked 19.10.2026

The illustrations were drawn for this guide. The site plan is drawn from OpenStreetMap data.