Spread across the plateau above the Pamukkale terraces, Hierapolis is the better half of the World Heritage site for anyone interested in Roman antiquity. The city was founded by the kings of Pergamon in the second century BC and became a Roman spa resort, drawing visitors who came to bathe in its hot springs and consult the oracle at the Plutonium. Earthquakes flattened it repeatedly and it was finally abandoned after the great Seljuk-era quake of the 14th century.
The highlights are the well-preserved Roman theatre carved into the hillside, the vast necropolis of more than a thousand tombs stretching for over a kilometre along the road north, the Domitian Gate, the colonnaded main street, the Byzantine basilica, and the recently identified Martyrium of Saint Philip. The on-site archaeological museum, housed in the restored Roman bath complex, holds the best sculpture finds.
In the centre of the site, the Antique Pool is a swimming basin where the thermal water flows over the broken drums and capitals of fallen columns — for an extra fee you can swim among them.