Hierapolis (Pamukkale) Archaeology Museum

The museum occupies the Roman bath, gymnasium and library complex inside the ancient city of Hierapolis, on about 14,000 square metres. After the baths were restored in the 1970s, finds from Hierapolis excavations and from sites such as Laodikeia and Tripolis were arranged here, and it first opened on 1 February 1984. A further restoration and new display, including an open-air section, brought it to its present form in April 2000.

The exhibits fill three halls, all in the vaulted travertine-block rooms of the bath. The Sarcophagi and Statues Hall gathers some of the finest Roman-period sculpture from Hierapolis, Laodikeia and other sites. The Small Finds Hall presents pottery, idols, stone works, lamps, glass, necklaces and metal jewellery in chronological order, from the fourth millennium BC through Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times, along with coins in gold, silver and bronze from the sixth century BC to Ottoman times.

The third room holds the Hierapolis Theatre Finds, the reliefs that decorated the stage building. Their scenes include Dionysos's revelry, the coronation of Hierapolis, the myth of Niobe, the crowning of Emperor Septimius Severus, the Marsyas myth, Herakles against Antaeus, the birth of Apollo and Artemis and the abduction of Persephone.