Travel with me #86 : A visit to the ancient Town of Hiera - Hierapolis!

Dear Steemit friends:

In today's edition of Travel with me, we'll be visiting Hierapolis and admiring the ancient ruins of this once very prosperous ancient city.

People often overlook Hierapolis because much of the attention is focused on the Pamukkale white travertine terraces which spread along the side of the mountain face of Büyük Menderes valley. Of course, that is to be expected because the terraces are truly beautiful and are unique on this planet!

Despite the beauty of the Pamukkale travertine terraces, it is definitely still worth visiting Hierapolis and seeing the ancient ruins of the once great city of Anatolia.

It's amazing to think that this city once had a population of nearly 100,000 people. Established by King Eumenes II of Pergamon, the town was built around the travertine terraces which were regarded as a natural miracle within his kingdoms's borders.

The town was named after Hiera, the wife of Telephos, the legendary founder of Pergamon.
The whole Hierapolis and Pamukkale site is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, meaning that considerable effort has been made to protect, preserve and even restore parts of the ancient city.

The entrance ticket to Pamukkale is inclusive of Hierapolis but you will likely want to make separate trips to visit each place. I spent almost an entire afternoon at the terraces and left very little time to explore Hierapolis and thus this trip was conducted on my second visit to the site.

The whole area stretches for several kilometers from one end to the other. On foot, it can take many hours to cover this distance whilst appreciating the ruins and artefacts which are spread around over a very large area.

For people who wish to save some time, there are little electric bikes you can rent and drive around yourself.
I would definitely recommend this option especially in the summer where temperatures can soar into the high 30's and even 40's.

Despite the temperature being 43 degrees Celsius, there are still people gliding up above in the sky, and many heat resistant people walking from site to site.
I decided to take a buggy with a roof and driver because the actual Hierapolis site starts at the Northern entrance which is the complete opposite side of the Southern Entrance where I came in. Even on the buggy, it takes around 10 minutes to drive there. At the very end of the Northern entrance, we find the Necropolis which itself extends for nearly 2km.
This particular necropolis is one of the best preserved in all of Turkey and inside you will find the excavations of nearly 1200 tombs.

The most common type of tomb seen in the picture below are the sarcophagi. These date back to as early as the 1st century AD. Usually they are surrounded by walls or trees but each have their own inscriptions and design.

What's interesting is that much like the graves we find in the modern day, there are different kinds of graves for people with different socio-economic status.

The northern necropolis is where the tombs of the rich people are situated and usually feature meticulous craftsmanship as well as inscriptions of the names of the dead buried inside.

This particular sarcophagi stood out to me because it's elevated above a stone arch!Usually, the larger the tomb, the more important the person buried inside was. As you can see, there are quite a number of large tombs which stick out amongst the smaller ones surrounding them.
Even though most of the tombs have now been excavated, most if not all have been vandalised over time.

In the past, words of warning were inscribed on the tombs themselves which would curse anyone who would try to vandalise them. There were even fines that were levied on people who were caught trying to do so.

Check out some more pictures of the Necropolis below!