The Ancient Theatre of Hierapolis
A Roman theatre set against the hillside with room for around 12,000 spectators; with its monumental stage building and marble reliefs, it is the best-preserved structure of the ancient city.
Martyrium of St Philip
An octagonal structure at the end of the path that branches off the site's main axis and climbs the hill; the 2011 excavations uncovered here a three-aisled church and, inside it, a far older tomb.
The Octagon on the Hill
A martyrium is the name given to a monumental structure built in memory of a saint. The one at Hierapolis stands on the hill to the city's northeast, off the main touring route; reaching it requires a separate climb, and most visitors leave without ever seeing the building for this reason.
The plan is octagonal. The octagonal form is thought to have symbolised rebirth and eternity in early Christian architecture; this is an interpretation, and the structure itself carries no such explanation.
The rooms surrounding the structure are interpreted as having been arranged for the lodging of pilgrims — meaning this was not only a monument but a visited destination.
The 2011 Excavation
For a long time the martyrium was the only known structure here on its own. In 2011, during work carried out by the Italian excavation team under the direction of Francesco D'Andria, a three-aisled church was uncovered nearby.
The location of the church is decisive: it was built within a Roman-period cemetery, around a chapelled tomb dated to the 1st century AD. In other words, the church was built after the tomb and for the tomb — a structure raised to protect and display the burial beneath it.
The head of the excavation presented this tomb as the tomb of St Philip, and the discovery was announced worldwide on that basis. The claim rests on the tomb's location, its date and the city's tradition concerning Philip; no inscription stating directly who the tomb belongs to has been found. For this reason, it should be read not as a settled identification but as a strongly argued proposal.
Why Hierapolis
Hierapolis's place in the history of early Christianity is not limited to this structure. The city is associated with the tradition that the apostle Philip died here, a tradition that goes back to ancient sources; the martyrium and the buildings around it are that tradition turned to stone.
Considered together with the fact that Laodicea, at the other end of the valley, is one of the Seven Churches, the Lycus valley emerges as a region dense with early Christian history — the roughly ten kilometres between the two sites link not two separate stories but the two ends of the same one.
Other pages in this section
Hierapolis Archaeology Museum
A museum set up inside a Roman bath within the archaeological site itself; it brings together sarcophagi and statues from five ancient cities of the valley.
The Necropolis of Hierapolis
One of the largest ancient cemeteries in Anatolia; tumuli, sarcophagi and monumental tombs stretching for kilometres along the edges of the city's roads.
Ploutonion — The Gate to Hell
An ancient cult site famous for the toxic carbon dioxide gas rising from underground; in antiquity it was regarded as the gateway of Pluto, god of the underworld.