Like many of the other ruins we visited, Hierapolis had a museum with various stonework and statues recovered during the excavations.
Stoa, those markets and stalls we have come see in numerous other places.
Like many of the other ruins we visited, Hierapolis had a museum with various stonework and statues recovered during the excavations.
Church history associates the Apostle Philip with Hierapolis.
You might not remember Philip so much; he is one of the "not in the inner circle" apostles. He does come up from time to time though, mostly in the Gospel of John. He is the one that asks Christ how they will feed the 5,000. He is the one that the Greek speakers came to in order to meet Christ (along with his name, likely suggesting he spoke Greek as well as Aramaic). He is the one at the last Supper that asks Christ to show them the Father.
Church tradition holds that he preached in Galilee, Greece, Parthia, and finally in the Roman province of Asia in Phyrigia, where he last settled in Hierapolis. He was martyred - traditionally by being crucified upside down, but beheading is also not out of the question - on or about A.D. 80.
Around A.D. 2011, a site that had been long associated with him was determined to be the original resting place of his relics (which were transported long ago to Rome).
The church, a martyrion (or martyrium), is simply a church built over the tomb of the martyr. It is located outside the city walls - not surprising, as few citizens were buried within the city walls.
The hike itself from Hierapolis proper was pleasant enough, a gentle rise that gets one a view over the whole valley.