Hierapolis Temple of Apollo

Templum Apollinis

TempleAsia · Pamukkale, Denizli Province, TurkeyBuilt 190 BCE · Destroyed 60 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

The oldest religious building in the city, raised on this podium not long after Eumenes II of Pergamon founded Hierapolis around 190 BCE, and standing directly beside the toxic Plutonium cave. The catastrophic earthquake of 60 CE under Nero shattered the Hellenistic sanctuary along with much of the city. What tourists walk through today is a 3rd-century CE Severan rebuild reusing the old blocks, so the temple was likely still a ruin, not a standing shrine, on the day Trajan died in 117 CE.

What happened here

The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.