Laodicea bible tour

It is an all day tour. The site Laodicea takes a 3 hours slow walk through the Roman ruins.
The cost starts from 250 Euros per person min. 2 pax. including transportation, entrance tickets, lunch at a local restaurant.

Laodicea is mentioned in the book of Colossians a few times since Colosea, Laodecia and Hierapolis are neighboring cities. The cities are walking distance from each other back then. Sometime before the year 61, a Christian congregation came into existence here Colossians 4:12,13. Epaphras made great efforts on behalf of those in Laodicea and Hierapolis according to the Bible.

Laodicea is situated in modern day Denizli in southwestern Türkiye. It is on the southwest side of the Lycus River between two streams, the Asopus (Gümüşçay) on the northwest and the Caprus (Başlıçay) on the southeast. It was named Laodice by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus II after his wife in the third century BC. According to historian Pliny the Elder, it was built over an earlier city named Diospolis which was “city of Zeus”. The city reached its heyday during the imperial times especially 1-3 centuries because of the textile business, agriculture and marble sources. The rich city got several big earthquakes and the last big one was the reason to empty it completely during the time of emperor Phocas (602-610 AD.) and its people moved to the northern sides of the Mount of Salbakos (Babadağ). The city has two main gates and streets and two big theaters, a stadium and a big temple and bath complexes and agoras. After Constantine the Great gave freedom to the church groups they started to build their early churches. Laodecia has very early churches from the times of Constantine as well with mosaics.

Pamukkale University of Denizli excavates and studies under the directorate of Prof. Celal Şimşek who is the Curator of Archaeology department there since 1997 and started the work in Laodicea in 2002. Before 2009 there were only few remains to visit but with their hard work, a big part of Laodecia can be seen today so the walk takes around 3 hours.

Hierapolis or Pamukkale

The site takes at least 3 hours walking on the site with Antique Pool, Travertines, Archaeology Museum and Roman Theater which all are the highlights. Please bring swimming costumes and towel and slippers if you want to swim in the thermal pools where legendary Cleopatra swam once. Antique pool requires purchasing tickets

Colossians 4:13 shows there was a congregation here. It was a rich Roman city with several Roman baths which had thermal hot waters as the Roman healing center. Lots of people with different health problems came here to find cures, however the necropolis of the city is the one of largest one.

The name Hierapolis (“sacred city”) refers to a holy center of Cybele and later Hellenistic times, Apollo Temple and Plutonium, the cult shrine of Pluto with the poisonous gas in a cave and source of hot thermal water coming under the ground.

The Martyrium of Philip was built as a part of a big church complex in the early 5th Century on the hilltop in the Byzantine period.