Hierapolis

Hi·er·ap·o·lis (hī-ə-răpʹə-lĭs)

An ancient city of northwest Asia Minor in present-day Turkey. The Roman city was known for its baths fed by hot springs. Hierapolis was also an early center of Christianity.

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Ancient city, now in Syria.

Its remains lie northeast of Aleppo. As a centre of the worship of the Syrian goddess Atargatis, it became known to the Greeks as the Holy City (Hierapolis). One of the great cities of Syria in the 3rd century AD, it thereafter declined. The ʽAbbāsid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd restored it at the end of the 8th century. Captured by Crusaders in the 12th century but reclaimed by Saladin in 1175, it later became the headquarters of the Mongols, who completed its ruin.

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▪ ancient Phrygian city

modern  Pamukkale 

 ancient Phrygian city in southwestern Turkey, about 6 miles (10 km) north of the ruins of Laodicea. Situated on the Coruh River, a tributary of the Buyuk Menderes (Maeander) River, it was probably established by Eumenes II of Pergamum in 190 BC. It became a sacred city (hieron), its chief religious festival being the Letoia, named after the goddess Leto, a local variant of the Great Mother of the Gods, who was honoured with orgiastic rites. There was also a worship of Apollo Lairbenos. Hierapolis was rebuilt during the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius in approximately AD 14–37 and survived until 1334, when it was abandoned after an earthquake. Extensive ruins, excavated since the 19th century, include baths, a gymnasium, an agora, and a Byzantine church.

▪ ancient city, Syria

      ancient Syrian city, now partly occupied by Manbij (Membij), about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Aleppo. The place first appears in Greek as Bambyce, but its Syrian name was probably Mabbog. The Seleucids made it the chief station on their main road between Antioch and Seleucia-on-Tigris. As a centre of the worship of the Syrian nature goddess Atargatis, it became known to the Greeks as the Holy City (Hierapolis).

      In the 3rd century AD, Hierapolis was one of the great cities of Syria, but it thereafter declined. Hārūn ar-Rashīd restored it at the end of the 8th century, and the crusaders captured it in the 12th century; but Saladin retook it (1175), and later it became the headquarters of Hülegü and his Mongols, who completed its ruin. The remains of the city are extensive but are almost wholly of late date.

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