Daily Aphrodisias Ancient City Tour from Pamukkale

Daily Aphrodisias Ancient City Tour from Pamukkale

Step back into the Roman world on this daily Aphrodisias ancient city tour from Pamukkale, a full-day excursion to one of the best-preserved classical cities in Turkey and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, Aphrodisias flourished as a renowned centre of marble sculpture, and its temple, stadium, theatre and museum survive in extraordinary completeness. After a morning pick-up and a scenic 1.5-hour drive through the southwestern Turkish countryside, this Pamukkale day trip immerses you in marble streets, monumental gateways and some of the finest ancient statuary ever found.

Highlights of the Aphrodisias Day Tour

• Aphrodisias — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Turkey's best-preserved Roman cities
• The Temple of Aphrodite and the Tetrapylon — the sanctuary of the goddess and the beautifully restored monumental gateway
• The Stadium — one of the largest and best-preserved ancient stadiums in the Mediterranean
• The Roman Theatre, Agora, Baths of Hadrian and Council House (Bouleuterion) — the civic heart of the ancient city
• The Sebasteion — a temple complex adorned with superb carved marble reliefs of Roman emperors and myths
• The Aphrodisias Museum — home to the celebrated sculptures uncovered by Professor Kenan Erim's excavations
• A traditional Turkish carpet-weaving cooperative — a glimpse of a centuries-old craft

Leaving Pamukkale and Karahayit behind, you drive about an hour and a half through rolling countryside to reach Aphrodisias, hidden among poplar groves in the valley of the Morsynus river. With your guide you walk through the monumental Tetrapylon, the gateway that welcomed pilgrims to the Temple of Aphrodite, and explore the Sebasteion with its extraordinary reliefs, the Bouleuterion or Council House, the Baths of Hadrian, the Agora and the Roman Theatre. The vast Stadium, remarkably intact, still seems ready to receive its thirty thousand spectators.

Aphrodisias was famous throughout the Roman Empire for its school of marble sculpture, carved from the brilliant white and blue-grey stone of the quarries on the hillside above the city, and the on-site Aphrodisias Museum displays masterpieces brought to light by the long excavations led by Professor Kenan Erim. After free time for photographs and a visit to a traditional Turkish carpet-weaving cooperative, where you learn about the age-old art of handwoven carpets, you are driven back through the countryside to your hotel in Pamukkale, arriving in the late afternoon.