Hierapolis

Hierapolis (hīərăp`əlĭs), ancient city of Phrygia, W Asia Minor, 7 mi (11.3 km) N of Laodicea and on a plateau 500 ft (152 m) above the Lycus valley (in present-day Turkey). Devoted to the worship of Leto in ancient times, it became an early seat of Christianity (Colossians 4.13). The Romans greatly enlarged and improved the city, building a large theater and numerous baths about the hot springs for which the site is famous. Near the city was a deep chasm called the Plutonium, which the ancients thought led to the nether regions; the fissure no longer exists. Extensive ruins survive from the Roman and Christian periods.

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Hierapolis

Ancient city, now in Syria. Its remains lie northeast of Aleppo. As a centre of the worship of the Syrian goddess Atargatis, it became known to the Greeks as the Holy City (Hierapolis). One of the great cities of Syria in the 3rd century AD, it thereafter declined. The 'Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid restored it at the end of the 8th century. Captured by Crusaders in the 12th century but reclaimed by Saladin in 1175, it later became the headquarters of the Mongols, who completed its ruin.