Explore Pamukkale

The Pamukkale travertines are white terraces of calcium carbonate deposited over millennia by hot springs on the slope below Hierapolis, about 2.7 kilometres long and 160 metres high. A path from the village climbs across them past shallow pools; the terraces and the ancient city share one entry and ticket and have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988.

The Hierapolis Archaeological Museum occupies the restored South Baths of Hierapolis, a Roman bath begun under Hadrian and completed under Septimius Severus, and opened in 1984. Its halls show sarcophagi and statues from Hierapolis and Laodicea, reliefs from the theatre's stage building and small finds from the Beycesultan mound.

Hierapolis is the ruined Hellenistic and Roman spa city on the plateau above the Pamukkale terraces, founded in the 2nd century BC and rebuilt on a grid plan after an earthquake in AD 60. Visitors walk its kilometre-long main street to the theatre, the Plutonium, the Martyrium of St Philip and an extensive necropolis; one ticket also covers the travertines.

The Antique Pool is a thermal spring pool inside the ancient city of Hierapolis, where marble columns of an Ionic portico have lain on the bottom since an earthquake in the 7th century AD. Visitors swim among the submerged ruins in warm, mineral-rich water; the pool has its own ticket in addition to the Hierapolis entry.

The Red Spring, Kırmızı Su in Turkish, is a hot spring in the village of Karahayıt about five kilometres north of Pamukkale. Its iron-rich water, at around 60 °C, coats the rock with red, ochre and green deposits as it runs down small travertine terraces into pools; the village's spa hotels draw on the same springs.

Laodicea on the Lycus is the ruin of a Greek and Roman city founded by the Seleucid king Antiochus II between 261 and 253 BC and named after his wife Laodice; it was later home to one of the Seven Churches of Asia. Excavations by Pamukkale University since 2002 have restored the colonnaded Syria Street, two theatres, a stadium, agoras, fountains and the church.