Pamukkale Day Tour from Kusadasi

The ancient city of Hierapolis is located on a 200 meter high terrace of limestone deposits amid a wonderland of mineral water pools and petrified limestone waterfalls. The ancient city overlooks the modern town of Pamukkale in Turkey's Inner Aegean region. Founded as a thermal spa in 190 BC by Eumenes II, the King of Pergamon, the city was most likely named for Hiero, the wife of the legendary founder of the Pergamene dynasty.

It is located in the middle of Hierapolis and is very well preserved. it was built during the reign of Emperor Hadrian in 2nd century AD. In Emperor Severus' period the cavea and the stage of theatre were restored by using the remains of another old theatre built earlier on the north of the city. Roman Theatre had a capacity of 8500 – 10000 spectators and was divided into two parts as upper and lower parts of seat by a diazoma.

Located on the main street between the theater and a sacred pool, this forty-by-sixty-foot temple was dedicated to the supposed god of light, Apollo. The entrance faced west and was approached by a broad flight of stairs.

Pamukkale has been made eternally famous by the gleaming white calcite travertines (terraces) overrunning with warm, mineral-rich waters on the mountain above the village – the so-called ‘Cotton Castle' (pamuk means 'cotton' in Turkish). Just above the travertines lies Hierapolis, once a Roman and Byzantine spa city, which has considerable ruins and a museum.