Laodicea Ancient City: A Visitor Guide Near Pamukkale

Where is Laodicea?

Laodicea, also called Laodicea on the Lycus and, in Turkish, Laodikeia, is the ancient city addressed in the Book of Revelation as one of the Seven Churches of Asia. It lies on a low plateau on the northern edge of Denizli in southwestern Turkey, about 6 km from the city centre and about 10 km south of the white travertine terraces of Pamukkale and the ancient city of Hierapolis.

From Kuşadası or Ephesus it is 185 to 190 km by road, roughly two and a half hours each way, so it is a full day out; from Pamukkale it is a 15-minute drive. Is it worth the trip? If the Seven Churches matter to you, or you are going to Pamukkale anyway, yes. It is one of the largest archaeological sites in Turkey, and after more than twenty years of excavation it has colonnaded streets, a 4th-century church, two theatres and a 285-metre stadium.

What made Laodicea rich

Location, wool and money. Laodicea stood where the road up from Ephesus and the coast met the routes into central and southern Anatolia, and trade, above all in textiles, was its main source of income. The geographer Strabo, writing in the early 1st century AD, says the sheep around Laodicea gave wool softer even than the famous wool of Miletus, and of a raven-black colour, from which the city drew "splendid revenue".

It was a money town too. Its bankers did business with Romans, among them Cicero, who spent several weeks here in 50 BC hearing court cases as governor of Cilicia. Strabo also describes a well-known school of medicine at a temple between Laodicea and the nearby village of Carura, and the city was linked with an eye remedy known as "Phrygian powder".

Today the ruins cover about five square kilometres. Since 2003 a team from Pamukkale University led by Professor Celal Şimşek has excavated and restored the site, now working there year-round, and in 2013 Turkey added Laodicea to its UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.

A short history of Laodicea

People lived here long before the Greeks: excavations have found pottery from about 5500 BC, and the earlier settlement went by the names Diospolis, "City of Zeus", and Rhoas. The Seleucid king Antiochus II founded the city between 261 and 253 BC and named it after his wife, Laodice. Several other cities carried the same name, which is why this one was known as Laodicea on the Lycus, after the river below it.

In 129 BC the region became part of the Roman province of Asia, and Laodicea grew into the chief city of a Roman judicial district. In AD 26 the Senate passed it over as not up to the task of hosting a temple to the emperor Tiberius. Yet when an earthquake destroyed the city in AD 60, the historian Tacitus recorded that Laodicea "recovered by its own resources, without assistance from ourselves". The stadium followed in AD 79, paid for by a local citizen, Nicostratus, and dedicated to the emperor Titus.

Christianity reached the Lycus valley in the 1st century, and Laodicea later became an important church centre and a place of pilgrimage. Its great church was built in the reign of Constantine the Great, soon after Christianity was legalised in 313. Earthquakes struck again in 494 and in the reign of the emperor Phocas (602–610), after which most of the people moved to the slopes of Mount Salbakos (Babadağ), where Denizli stands today. The Seljuk and Ottoman Turks called the place Ladik.

Excavation on a large scale is recent. A Canadian team uncovered one monumental fountain in the early 1960s, but systematic work only began in 2002–2003, and the church came to light in 2010. Much of what you see today, from the re-erected columns of the main street to the restored West Theatre, is the result of the last twenty years.

What to see at Laodicea

The entrance is on the east side of the site. From there the route follows the main colonnaded street west past the most important buildings, with side trips north to the church and the theatres and south to the stadium. Information panels in Turkish and English stand at the main monuments.

Syria Street

The city's main colonnaded street is the spine of every visit. Excavated and re-erected since 2002, it has a marble-paved roadway about 7.5 metres wide, with a covered walkway raised two steps on each side and shops behind. A main sewer almost two metres high runs beneath the middle of the street. Along it stand monumental fountains named after the emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla, the Central Agora and Temple A, and coins found in the excavations show the street was still in use between the 4th and 6th centuries.

The Church of Laodicea

Now the site's main attraction. This large basilica was built in the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337), soon after Christianity was legalised, and was used until the 7th century. Its three aisles have mosaic floors at the sides and coloured marble paving (opus sectile) down the middle, and the building has eleven apses and a baptistery on the north side with a cross-shaped font that you step down into. Archaeologists located it in 2010. It now stands under a modern protective roof, and its excavation and restoration were honoured at the 2016 Europa Nostra Awards for cultural heritage.

It helps to be clear about what it is. The church John wrote to in Revelation was a congregation, not this building, which went up some two centuries later. But it is one of the oldest church buildings known in Anatolia, and it stands in the city whose Christians received that letter.

Temple A and the Sacred Agora

Beside the church, on the north side of Syria Street, Temple A stands on a high podium at the end of a colonnaded courtyard. Its Corinthian columns have been partly re-erected, and the finds show it served both the gods and the cult of the Roman emperors. North of Syria Street lies the vast North, or Sacred, Agora, a religious square with temples, whose east portico had columns 10.8 metres tall and a long pool in front. The Central Agora lies on the south side of Syria Street; in all, Laodicea had five agoras.

The West and North theatres

Laodicea had two theatres on the north side of the city. The older West Theatre was cut into the hillside in the Hellenistic period, about 2,200 years ago. After a restoration that began in 2019, it reopened in May 2022 with a concert by the Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, its first performance in more than 1,600 years. From the top rows you can see across the valley to the white terraces of Pamukkale.

The larger North Theatre was built of marble in the 2nd century AD, when the city had outgrown the first one, and looks out over the Lycus plain. In both theatres the excavators found seating reserved for the city's leading families, with the seats numbered.

The stadium and the South Baths

A walk along the colonnaded Stadium Street brings you to the stadium on the southern edge of the city: 285 metres long and 70 metres wide, with seats for an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 spectators. An inscription records that Nicostratus paid for it and dedicated it to the emperor Titus in AD 79. Beside it stand the South Baths, a combined bath house and gymnasium dedicated to the emperor Hadrian and his wife Sabina, where athletes could train next to the track.

The water distribution terminal

Laodicea's water came from springs about 8 km to the south, at today's Başpınar, through pipelines made of travertine blocks and clay pipes. It fed two large distribution terminals, which sent it on to fountains, baths and houses. The water was heavy with lime, and the old pipes are thick with mineral deposits; at the ruined terminal you can still see the ends of the pipes set into the stone. In 2015 the excavators found a marble block inscribed with a water law of AD 114, which set a fine of 5,000 denarii for polluting the water or damaging the channels, and 12,500 denarii for officials who turned a blind eye to illegal tapping.

Many readers connect the city's piped-in, mineral-laden water with Revelation's "lukewarm" church; our article on the Church of Laodicea explores the idea.

Laodicea in the Bible

Laodicea appears twice in the New Testament. Paul's letter to the Colossians mentions the believers there several times: Epaphras "has a great zeal for you, and those who are in Laodicea, and those in Hierapolis", and Paul asks for his letter to be read in Laodicea and for the Colossians to read "the letter from Laodicea" (Colossians 2:1; 4:13–16).

It is also the last of the seven churches addressed in Revelation (1:11; 3:14–22). The letter calls the church "neither cold nor hot", quotes its boast, "I am rich", and counsels it to buy "gold refined by fire", "white garments" and "eye salve", images that echo the city's banking, wool and medicine. Our Church of Laodicea article goes through the letter in detail, and our Seven Churches of Revelation guide shows where Laodicea fits on the full route.

Visiting Laodicea: hours, tickets and time needed

• Opening hours: every day from 08:00 to 17:30; the ticket office closes at 17:00. These are the official hours as of October 2026, and they can change with the season.
• Tickets: €12 for foreign visitors. A combined ticket covering Hierapolis and Laodicea is also sold. Prices are set in euros and change most years, so check muze.gov.tr before you go. Entrance fees are included on our tour.
• Audio guide: an official audio guide is available.
• Time needed: two hours covers Syria Street, the church, Temple A and the West Theatre. Allow three to four hours to add the North Theatre, the stadium and the water terminal at an easy pace.
• Best time of year: spring (April to early June) and autumn (mid-September to October). In July and August the average afternoon high in Denizli is about 35 °C.
• Shade: apart from the church's roof there is almost none, so start early and carry water and a hat.

How to get to Laodicea

From Kuşadası and the cruise port

Laodicea is about 190 km inland from Kuşadası, around two and a half hours each way, so it is a full-day trip. By public transport you would have to change in Denizli, which makes a private car or tour by far the easiest way from the coast. Our Laodicea tour picks you up at 07:00, reaches the site around 09:30, leaves the Denizli area at 15:00 and has you back by about 19:00. That suits long port calls only, so cruise passengers should send us their arrival and all-aboard times before booking.

From Selçuk and Izmir

The drive follows the Büyük Menderes valley east past Aydın and Nazilli to Denizli, on motorway and good main roads all the way. From Selçuk it takes about two and a quarter hours; from central Izmir allow about two and three-quarter hours. We can pick you up from your hotel in Selçuk or Izmir; send us the hotel name and your date on WhatsApp.

By public transport

Trains from Izmir Basmane reach Denizli in about five hours, and long-distance coaches also run to Denizli. From Denizli, minibuses heading north to Pamukkale pass close to the site; the stop at Korucuk is about a kilometre from the ruins. A taxi from central Denizli takes about 15 minutes.

From Pamukkale

Laodicea is about 14 km by road from the south gate of Hierapolis, a drive of 15 to 20 minutes. If you are staying in Pamukkale, it makes an easy morning before the terraces, or a quieter afternoon after them.

Laodicea, Pamukkale and Colossae

Laodicea, Hierapolis and Colossae were three Christian communities of the Lycus valley, and Paul's letter to the Colossians names all three. Today Laodicea and Hierapolis make a natural pair: Laodicea in the cooler morning, then Hierapolis and the travertine terraces of Pamukkale in the afternoon.

From Kuşadası, both sites in one day makes a long day. Our standard Laodicea tour concentrates on Laodicea; if you want to add Hierapolis and the terraces, message us on WhatsApp and we can plan it as a custom private day, at a different price from our standard tours. Going the other way, Laodicea can also be added to our Pamukkale & Hierapolis tour; message us on WhatsApp to arrange it. Our guides to the Pamukkale day trip from Kuşadası and the Pamukkale day trip from Izmir explain how that day works.

Sculpture and sarcophagi from the Laodicea excavations are displayed in the Hierapolis Archaeology Museum at Pamukkale, alongside finds from Hierapolis itself, so the museum completes a visit to both cities.

Colossae

Colossae, the city Paul's letter to the Colossians was written to, lies near Honaz, about 19 km by road east of Laodicea, a 20-minute drive. Unlike Laodicea, it had never been systematically excavated until 2025, when a Pamukkale University team began digging in its cemetery, so for now it is visited mainly for its biblical associations. Our four-day Seven Churches of Revelation tour from Kuşadası visits Laodicea and Colossae on its final day, and a stop at Colossae can also be added to a Laodicea day trip; message us on WhatsApp to plan it.

If you have another day inland, Aphrodisias, the marble city of Aphrodite, is about an hour and a half west of Pamukkale.

Private Laodicea tour from Kuşadası

Our Laodicea Ancient City tour is a full private day from Kuşadası with a professional guide, covering the colonnaded streets, the water channels and the restored church. You arrive around 09:30 and leave the Denizli area at 15:00, with entrance fees, tolls and parking included.

• Length: about 12 hours, 07:00 to around 19:00
• Price: €90 per person for a group of 15; the price changes with group size
• Pickup: Kuşadası cruise port, or hotels in Kuşadası, Selçuk and Izmir, arranged on WhatsApp
• Included: private professional guide, air-conditioned vehicle, tolls and parking, entrance fees
• Not included: personal expenses

Tips for visiting Laodicea

• Start early. The site opens at 08:00, and the morning is the coolest time to walk the open ground.
• Bring water, a hat and sunscreen. Apart from the church's roof there is almost no shade.
• Wear proper shoes. You walk on uneven ancient paving and gravel paths, with steps up into the theatres.
• Climb to the top of the West Theatre. On a clear day you can see the white terraces of Pamukkale across the valley.
• Look closely at the pipes. Many are still crusted with lime from the hard water they carried.
• Expect work in progress. Excavation and restoration continue year-round, so some areas may be fenced off.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany (CC BY-SA 2.0), Rigorius (CC BY-SA 4.0), Rigorius (CC BY-SA 4.0), Basak (CC0), Blcksprt (CC BY-SA 4.0), Rjdeadly (CC BY-SA 4.0).