Most visitors come to the travertines, take their photo on the white terraces and head back. Yet your ticket also lets you into one of the largest spa cities of the Roman world — and it's right behind the gate.
Hierapolis means "sacred city." Founded in the 2nd century BC by the kings of Pergamon, its thermal water drew the sick and the weary from every corner of Rome. The streets, baths and theatre we walk through today were, two thousand years ago, the lanes of a health-tourism hub. So you are not the first traveller to come to Pamukkale for healing — you're just about two thousand years late.
The theatre: applause for twelve thousand
The city's best-preserved structure is the magnificent theatre set into the hillside. The reliefs of the stage building — feasts of Apollo, Artemis and Dionysus — remain in place, which is extremely rare for the theatres of Anatolia. Sit on the top step and look out over the valley, and you'll understand why the audience climbed up here between acts.
The necropolis: the city of the dead
Outside the north gate, the cemetery stretching for two kilometres is the largest in Anatolia. Sarcophagi, tumuli and house-shaped tombs stand side by side — because some of those who came to be healed stayed here for good. On my tours the most questions come along this road; everyone wonders how a city so intertwined with death can look so peaceful.
The antique pool: swimming among columns
The thermal pool built among marble columns toppled by an earthquake is an experience with perhaps no equal anywhere in the world. Entry is a separate fee and it gets very crowded at midday in summer — on my tours I put the pool either first thing in the morning or at the end of the day.
The climb up to the Martyrion, the monumental tomb of St. Philip, I save for those with the energy: from the top you see the whole city and the white ribbon of the travertines in a single frame.