Photos by Jack A. Waldron
Hierapolis Kastabala truly is a grand site, a gem waiting to be unearthed and assembled. Pictured above in the fore ground, most likely the remains of a Roman period building, probably Byzantine, while high above on the citadel, a castle of Middle Age construction, which replaced the early Crusader built fortress, then Byzantine, Roman, Armenian, Greek and beyond, as pre-historic remains have been found on the site.
Pictured above, the Roman bath complex sports a magnificent octagonal entrance to the bath building which must have been the pride of the city. Notice the fine square Corinthian capitals situated in the mid-section of each arched entrance. Below, a building cornice lay in wait to be gathered, numbered and recorded.
Curtius, the 1C AD Roman historian was paraphrased by Freya Stark describing the seen:
"The fire alters were carried across the pass and the young men in red cloaks marched before him [Darius]; and those who led the chariot and the horses of the sun; and the twelve nations; and the Immortals with their apples, in sleeved tunics and gold; and the King's relatives that surrounded his high car, and the thirty thousand footmen and the four hundred horses; and the six hundred mules and three hundred camels with money; and the chariots of the mother and wife, the women and children behind."
Pictured above, the orchestra of the ancient theater appears larger than usual, however the dirt floor has slowly filled up the cavea over the centuries, while the arched theater entrance is nearly completely entombed. Also, a blue tarp can be seen just behind my right ear, which is an ongoing exploratory excavation.
Pictured above, a colonnade lines the ancient road into the city, while below, it ends and continues beneath centuries of accumulated earth, as Hierapolis Kastabala has yet to be fully excavated.
Pictured below, I stopped along the road while leaving the site to get one last shot of the citadel. The whole area between me and the castle has yet to be excavated.
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