Pepouza, in Phrygia, was the centre where Montanism arose — the prophetic Christian movement of the second century — which is the reason the site is sought out. Written sources record that the city had a Byzantine monastery, and the excavations found what that meant in practice: more than sixty rooms on three levels, a refectory, a chapel, a kitchen, Byzantine graffiti in the form of crosses, and Byzantine pottery.
The city is thought to have been a large settlement, and it lay west of the Roman bridge where the Ulubey canyon widens. Its water came from a spring on the eastern side of the canyon, carried two and a half kilometres by the Clandras aqueduct. The site is within the bounds of Karayakuplu village in the Karahallı district of Uşak, reached by vehicles going to Karahallı.
Getting there
- Access
- The site lies within Karayakuplu village, reached on the vehicles running to Karahallı.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Uşak as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 2.4 °C in January to 23.6 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (85 mm) and lightest in August (13 mm). Long-term means for 1939-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
