A Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul sets the terraces beside the ruins of a Roman city on the Lycus. This route flies to Denizli on day one and returns on day two. Below you find the flight, the street plan, the gods, the timeline and the museum. For trips to the Greek islands, see Greece Tours on the homepage.
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What does the airport at Denizli change for a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul?
Flying to Denizli Çardak Airport replaces a road of more than 500 kilometres with a flight of about one hour. A Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul then continues by road, because the airport lies over 60 kilometres from the city.
Denizli Çardak Airport stands inside the Çardak district of Denizli Province, 5 kilometres from the district centre. It opened on 11 February in nineteen ninety-one and serves public and military flights. A Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul by air touches down on its runway.
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The runway is made of asphalt and is 3,000 metres long. The site stands 852 metres above sea level, and the terminal covers 16,890 square metres. The airport codes are DNZ and LTAY, and in Turkish the name is Denizli Çardak Havalimanı. The Çardak district lies between the Aegean and Mediterranean regions.
The airport sits far from the places on this route. It lies east of Denizli, more than 60 kilometres from the city centre. Pamukkale lies about 70 kilometres from the runway, and the drive takes about one hour. Denizli has the closest airport to Pamukkale.
Two Istanbul airports fly to Denizli, and a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul can leave from either one. Sabiha Gökçen, code SAW, is the secondary international airport of Istanbul. It is named after Sabiha Gökçen, adoptive daughter of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. It stands on the Asian side, in the Pendik district, 32 kilometres southeast of the city centre.
The M4 metro line reaches Sabiha Gökçen, and the airport has two runways. Istanbul Airport has the code IST and belongs to the European side. Its district is Arnavutköy. It lies north of central Istanbul, on 7,600 hectares near Lake Terkos. Both airports have flights to Çardak Airport.
Distance explains the flight. The road from Istanbul to Denizli is more than 500 kilometres long. A car needs over six hours on that road, and a coach needs about ten hours. Flights reach Denizli daily, and the flight itself takes between 60 and 75 minutes. Because of that gap, a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul goes by air.
The road between the city and the airport is the D.320 highway. It runs from Aydın in the west to Dinar in the east. On the way it passes Nazilli, Sarayköy, Denizli, Bozkurt and Çardak, in that order. The airport lies south of the highway, past Bozkurt.
This route gives the first day to the flight and the terraces. The plan flies from Istanbul to Denizli, then visits the terraces and Hierapolis. The night is spent near Pamukkale. Day one of a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul therefore ends close to the travertines.
Day two starts with the ruins of Laodicea in the morning. After that, the road leads back to Denizli, and the flight returns to Istanbul. The ruins lie north of Denizli, so that drive runs south. Across both days, a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul uses the Denizli airport twice, to arrive and to leave.
Laodicea, Pamukkale and the airport all lie in Denizli Province. Laodicea lies about 6 kilometres north of Denizli, near the village of Eskihisar. Pamukkale, also a district of the province, lies about 20 kilometres from the city, so it sits farther north. Both stops of a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul lie north of Denizli.
How was Roman Laodicea laid out, as a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul shows?
Laodicea follows a grid plan: main streets and side streets meet at right angles across about 5 square kilometres. Syria Street, the Central Agora, the council house and Temple A sit on it. Day two of a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul spends its morning there.
The Hippodamian plan is a layout of broad, straight streets that cut one another at right angles. Laodicea was designed on that plan, so its streets either cross at right angles or run parallel. The rule is simple, so every ruin is easy to place on a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul. Every building below sits on that grid.
The ancient city covers about 5 square kilometres, and cemeteries lie on all four sides of it. Porticoes ran along both sides of the main streets, with shops behind them. Colonnades and pedestals flank the streets of the town. The morning of day two on a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul is spent across this wide ground.
Three colonnaded streets carry names on the site plan: Syria Street, Ephesus Street and Stadium Street. Syria Street ran from the Syria Gate in the east to the city centre in the west. Walkers who leave Syria Street continue on Stadium Street, the old road to the stadium. Side streets meet the main streets at right angles.
Syria Street was the main colonnaded street, and the whole street measured 900 metres. Excavators unearthed and restored 400 metres of it, from the Caracalla Fountain to the East Byzantine Gate. Blocks of buildings, called insulae, flank the street. They are 42 metres wide and 51 metres deep. Visitors on a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul can trace that stretch.
Two monumental gateways opened the city: the Ephesus Gate and the Syria Gate. The Syria Gate stood at the eastern end of Syria Street. The line of the ancient wall can be traced, and the remains of the Ephesus Gate lie along it. Look for those two gate names on the site plan during a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul.
The Central Agora takes its name from its place in the middle of the city, on Syria Street. It is rectangular, with colonnaded porticoes on three sides. The east and west porticoes led to shops. The south portico bordered the Central Baths. A memorial column stands in the centre of the square.
The North Agora, also called the Sacred Agora, has porticoes and propylons. A propylon is a monumental gateway, so these mark the ways into the square. The city also had a bouleuterion, which means a council house. In ancient Greek cities, such a building housed the council of citizens, who met there to decide public affairs.
Temple A stands on the north side of Syria Street. Its courtyard was entered from the south, along the street. The Septimius Severus Nymphaeum lies between the east propylon of the North Agora and Temple A. A Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul can use these two buildings as fixed points on the street plan.
The East Byzantine Gate lies on Syria Street. The East Byzantine Nymphaeum stands on the north side of the street, just outside that gate. The Caracalla Fountain stands at the other end of the restored 400 metres. A nymphaeum is a monumental public fountain, so fountains stand near both ends of that stretch.
Which gods and coins mark Laodicea on a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul?
Zeus was the founding god of Laodicea, and its coins show him with an eagle and a sceptre. Athena, Artemis and Apollo were honoured there too. On a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul, temple remains and coins tell this religious past.
Two temples with altars stood in the courtyard of the Northern Agora. The Ionic one honoured Zeus, and the Corinthian one honoured Athena, the goddess of the city. Builders framed this large square with porticoes. In the imperial age it served as a temenos, a piece of land set apart for a god.
In the age of Constantine, builders took both temples apart. They reused the blocks of the Athena temple in the east portico. The blocks of the Zeus temple went into the west portico. For a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul, those reused blocks are the stone record of two cults.
Temple A honoured the goddess Artemis, the god Apollo and the cult of the emperors. It dates to the Antonine period, in the second century. Its blocks were travertine, set on a high podium and covered with marble. Major repairs followed under the emperor Diocletian. A Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul meets the worship of rulers in this one temple.
Laodicea struck its own coins in the Roman age. Their inscriptions show that people worshipped Zeus, Apollo and the emperors. Coins are therefore a second way to study the gods on a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul.
Inscriptions and coins together give information about the religious life of the city. A series of coins also came out in the reign of Caracalla. One copper-alloy coin from the reign of Hadrian is 25 millimetres across. Its front shows the laureate bust of the emperor with the legend Hadrianus Olympius.
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On the back of that coin, Zeus Laodiceus stands facing forward with his head turned to the left. He holds an eagle in his stretched right hand, and his left hand rests on a sceptre. The legend on the back names the Laodiceans.
Zeus also carried the title Aseis on the city’s coins. On a coin of Hadrian’s reign, he is naked to the waist, with a cloak over his lower body. He stretches his right arm over the head of a goat. Another coin has Zeus Aseis on the front and Athena with a spear and shield on the back.
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The Greek word neokoros means a temple custodian. A city won the title by building temples to the emperors. A coin of Caracalla names the Laodiceans as neokoroi. A coin struck in the reign of Philip I carries the same title. Both legends are worth knowing on a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul.
On the coin of Philip, Zeus Laodiceus stands facing Tyche. She holds a rudder on a globe and a cornucopia, which is a horn of plenty. Tyche was the deity who governed the fortune and prosperity of a city. Her name means Luck in Greek.
A second coin of Philip’s reign shows Zeus facing a cult statue of Artemis of Ephesus. Its legend names the Laodiceans and the Ephesians and adds homonoia, the Greek word for concord. The god of Laodicea thus faces the goddess of Ephesus. On day two, a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul reaches the ruins of the city that struck it.
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How did Laodicea change from its founding to the Seljuk age on a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul?
Laodicea passed from Seleucid kings to the Kingdom of Pergamon, then to Rome, and later to Byzantine and Seljuk rulers. A Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul reaches its ruins on day two of this route, before the drive to Denizli.
The story opens in the third century BC. A Seleucid king founded Laodicea on a hill above the Lycus river, on the site of an earlier settlement. Pliny the Elder writes that the town was first called Diospolis and afterwards Rhoas. A Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul therefore visits a city that carried other names before its own.
Seleucid rule went on under Antiochus III the Great. He brought two thousand Jewish families from Babylon to Phrygia. In the second century BC, a Roman victory at the Battle of Magnesia led to the Treaty of Apamea. That treaty gave the Kingdom of Pergamon control of the whole of western Asia Minor.
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Laodicea lay in that western region, so the kings of Pergamon became its rulers. When the last Pergamene king died, he left his territory to Rome. At the start of the first century BC, wars between Rome and King Mithridates VI of Pontus devastated Laodicea. The city recovered quickly, and Rome granted it the status of a free city.
Roman rule placed Laodicea in the province of Asia, where the proconsul held his assize courts in the city. Laodicea was also the chief city of a Roman conventus, a court district of 24 other cities. Strolling among the ruins during a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul means walking a former court centre of the province.
In the first century BC, Laodicea ranked among the leading cities of Anatolia. The statesman Cicero came to the city and dealt with legal problems there. Emperor Hadrian visited in the second century AD and wrote letters to Rome from Laodicea. The richest age of the city ran from the first century to the fifth century AD.
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In his reforms, Emperor Diocletian cut Phrygia into two provinces, Salutaris and Pacatiana. Laodicea on the Lycus became the capital of the western part, named Pacatiana. The provinces survived until the end of the seventh century, when the Theme system replaced them. A Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul visits a former provincial capital.
Accounts of the Byzantine centuries contradict each other, a point to remember on a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul. One account in the UNESCO papers ends the city in the early seventh century. Byzantine sources still name Laodicea in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, especially under the Komnenian emperors. The reason why people left the old city is not known.
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In the late eleventh century, the Seljuk army conquered Laodicea. Emperor John II Komnenos and his chief commander, John Axouch, captured it back in the early twelfth century. The city lacked defences, so Emperor Manuel I Komnenos fortified it later in the twelfth century. The Seljuks sacked Laodicea the year after that, and much of its population was enslaved.
The Seljuk Turks conquered Denizli, and inhabitants of Laodicea were resettled there. In one account, they built homes on the northern slopes of Mount Salbakos, today called Babadağ. Denizli was first known in Turkish as Tonguzlu. After the ruins, a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul drives to Denizli, the town that took in those settlers.
What do the Denizli museum and the conservation work add to a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul?
The Denizli museum holds statues and sarcophagi from Laodicea, and conservation has raised columns and roofed a church floor. Together they let a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul show what the city held and how the ruins are kept.
The museum is called the Hierapolis Archaeological Museum, or the Pamukkale Archaeological Museum. It stands inside the ruins of Hierapolis, in Denizli Province, not in Denizli city. Hierapolis fills day one of this route. Finds from Laodicea are handed to this museum. It links the two days of a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul.
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The museum has a Hall of Sarcophagi and Statues. It holds sarcophagi, statues, tombstones, columns and inscriptions drawn from the Hierapolis and Laodicea excavations. The sarcophagi on show include ones unearthed in rescue digs at Laodicea. Other towns of the Lycus valley, among them Colossae, Tripolis and Attuda, share the displays.
The marble sarcophagi of Laodicea carry carved garlands, friezes and columns. Sculptures of high quality have been found in the city as well. Cemeteries lie on all four sides of the ancient city. These carved pieces add fine detail to the big street ruins of a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul.
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The dig has also produced single statues. One shows the emperor Trajan. Another is a priest’s head, believed to be 2,000 years old. Reliefs of a rooster have turned up too, and the rooster is the symbol of modern Denizli. Other reliefs show a pomegranate, a poppy and a gourd.
Turkish law protects the site of Laodicea. A regional conservation council registered it as a first-degree and third-degree archaeological site and approved a conservation plan for it. Excavation and restoration run through all twelve months of the year. So a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul crosses ground where restoration runs all year.
The long streets and open squares are largely restored. The list covers Syria Street, the Central Agora, the East Byzantine Gate and the street to the North Theatre. The public latrine and the House A complex are on it too. The Central Agora has a memorial column. Stadium Street counts as restored too.
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Nineteen columns of Temple A and its sanctuary have been re-erected. In the temple, a glass floor shows toppled pillars beneath. The glass sits in a steel frame over an arched vault. Visitors walk on the glass and look down. That glass gives a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul a view of fallen stone from above.
A protective roof covers the excavated church of Laodicea. It spans 2,000 square metres. Under it lie wall paintings, geometrical mosaics and opus sectile pavements, which are floors of cut stone pieces. The roof keeps those floors in view for a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul.
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The church work won a special prize from a European heritage jury. Its preservation, conservation and restoration methods were praised. The same project restored the bishop’s house, the church archives and the roads that lead to the church. It also made arrangements for visiting.
Visitors enter the site up Syria Street. From the church, paths wind across the hill towards the north and west of the site. A cafe, restrooms, car parking and a shop stand on the site. Within a Pamukkale Laodicea tour from Istanbul, the ruins fill the morning of day two.