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Archaeological siteWorth your time

Northern Necropolis

Two kilometres of tombs along the old road north: house-tombs, tumuli and more than a thousand sarcophagi.

The paved ancient road through the Northern Necropolis of Hierapolis, lined on both sides with stone tombs and a massive lidded sarcophagus, with rows of tombs receding toward pine-covered hills.
Credit: Carole Raddato · License: CC BY-SA 2.0
Two circular tumulus tombs in the Northern Necropolis of Hierapolis, their grassy earthen mounds resting on drum-shaped stone bases, with scattered tombs and the hazy Lycus valley plain beyond.
Credit: Carole Raddato · License: CC BY-SA 2.0

Enough context, no spoilers

Why it matters

People came to Hierapolis to be cured by the water and a great many stayed permanently. From the Hellenistic period to the Byzantine, the road to Tripolis and Sardis was lined with graves of every rank — plain cists, marble sarcophagi on plinths, circular tumuli with vaulted chambers, and temple-fronted family mausolea. Around 1,200 tombs survive.

What to know before you go

The necropolis is the part of Hierapolis that explains the rest of it. This was a spa town people travelled to when they were already ill, and a strikingly large number of them did not travel home. The result is one of the biggest cemeteries in Anatolia: roughly 1,200 tombs strung for two kilometres along the road running north, arranged by wealth as clearly as any modern suburb. Simple stone cists at the bottom. Above them marble sarcophagi raised on plinths, many with the family name still cut into the lid in Greek. Above those, circular tumuli with vaulted burial chambers, and finally house-tombs and mausolea built with pediments and columns like small temples. Almost nobody on a half-day stop gets here — it is the furthest point in the site from the south gate, along a completely unshaded route. That is precisely why it works: an hour of near-solitude at a UNESCO site receiving over two million people a year. Go early, carry water, and treat the walk as part of the visit rather than an approach to it.

Look for: Greek epitaphs still legible on sarcophagus lids, and the round tumuli with their stone drums. The Ammianos relief showing a water-powered stone saw — the earliest known crank and connecting rod — is in the museum, not here.