Stretching for almost two kilometres along the old road leading north out of the city, the Necropolis of Hierapolis is one of the most extensive in Anatolia. More than 1,200 tombs cluster on either side of the route in a chaotic city of the dead: tall house-tombs with miniature pitched roofs, circular tumulus burials piled with stones, and elaborate sarcophagi carved with garlands and Medusa heads. Their owners came from across the Roman world to take the hot-spring cure — and many never went home.
The northern stretch is the most rewarding for a slow walk; signs identify the better-preserved monuments. Look for the tomb of Flavius Zeuxis, a Jewish merchant who proudly recorded on his sarcophagus that he had sailed 72 times around Cape Malea between Hierapolis and Italy.