Perre was one of the five great cities of Commagene, the kingdom that the governor of Adıyaman describes as beginning and ending with this province. The site sits just outside the city of Adıyaman and was also a centre of some weight under Rome.
The site lies in the Örenli quarter of central Adıyaman, five kilometres out along the Malatya road, and its importance was geopolitical: it stood on major routes. Ancient writers, the Ministry notes, praised the quality of its water and described the city as a resting place for caravans, travellers and armies — and the Roman fountain that water flowed from is still in use. In the Byzantine period Perre linked the ancient west to Persia and came to be called Hierapolis, the holy city; its standing in church affairs shows in its presence at the council held in Nicaea, today's İznik, in AD 325.
Modern excavation is recent: the provincial administration began work in 2020 and has continued it in stages, concentrating on the necropolis, where finds assessed as Roman have come to light. The most talked-about feature is unresolved. A stairway of roughly 400 steps has been followed for three seasons without reaching its end, and the governorate says openly that where it leads is still unknown.
Perre is usually visited together with the Karakuş Tumulus nearby, the burial mound known as the cemetery of the queens. The Adıyaman Museum oversees the Commagene sites and is the place to ask about visiting.
Perre has the largest cemetery in the region and its rock-cut tomb chambers are what most visitors come for. The same ground holds a cistern, wine-pressing installations and Byzantine wall construction, and excavation has uncovered mosaic floors, which the Ministry's page dates to the 5th century BC.
Getting there
- Access
- At the fifth kilometre of the Malatya road out of central Adıyaman. The college dolmuş serve it.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Adıyaman as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 4.7 °C in January to 31.1 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May and October; rainfall is heaviest in January (137 mm) and lightest in July (2 mm). Long-term means for 1963-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
