The columned church at Pamukkale, dated to the seventh century AD, has three aisles, the passages between them divided by columns large and small, with an apse at the end of the large central aisle; the building was probably vaulted. The diaconicon and prothesis stand on either side of the single apse at the end of the church's central bay.
It is one of several: another three-aisled church stands at the centre of the site, and on the northern side of Hierapolis are smaller churches with a single apse, mostly of the later period — which shows that the city kept its character even in those centuries. That so many important churches were built at Hierapolis between the fifth and seventh centuries AD shows both its religious importance and its standing as a major centre in the Byzantine period, and the gold finds from the Akköy family tomb, dated to the fifth and sixth centuries, support that picture of wealth. The first religious figure associated with Hierapolis is St Philip. The site is eighteen kilometres north of Denizli.
Getting there
- Access
- Eighteen kilometres north of central Denizli; minibuses run to the Pamukkale ruins from the Denizli coach station.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Denizli as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6 °C in January to 27.5 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in January (90 mm) and lightest in August (11 mm). Long-term means for 1957-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
