HIERAPOLIS rIepdiroXis), a city of Phrygia, not far from ColossIe and Laodicea, where there was a Christian church as early as the time of St. l'aul (Col. iV. 12, 13). The place is visible from the theatre at Laodicea, from which it is five miles distant northward.
Smith, in his journey to the Seven Churches (1670, was the first to describe the ancient sites in this neighbourhood. He was followed by Pococke and Chandler ; and more recently by Richter, Cockerel', Hartley, and Arundell.
The place now bears the name of Pon:bank-Kul asi (Cotton-castle), from the white appearance ot the cliffs of the mountain on the lower summit, or rather an extended terrace, on which the ruins are situated. It owed its celebrity, and probably the sanctity indicated by its ancient name (Holy City), to its very remarkable springs of mineral water, the singular effects of which, in the formation of stalac tites and incrustations by its deposits, are shewn in the accounts of Pococke (ii. pt. 2, c. 13) and Chandler (Asia Minor, c, 68), to have been accu rately described by Strabo (xiii. p. 629). A great number and variety of sepulchres are found in the different approaches to the site, which on one side is sufficiently defended by the precipices overlook ing the valleys of the Lycus and Mxander, while on the other sides the town walls are still observ able. The magnificent ruins clearly attest the ancient importance of the place. The main street can still be traced in its whole extent, and is bor dered by the remains of three Christian churches, one of which is upwards of 3oo feet long. About
the middle of this street, just above the mineral spring,s, Pococke, in 1741, thought that he dis tinguished some remains of the Temple of Apollo, which, according to Damascius, quoted by Photius (BiBlioth. p. ros4), was in this situation. But the principal ruins are a theatre and gymnasium, both in a state of uncommon preservation ; the former346 feet in diameter, the latter nearly filling a space of 400 feet square. Strabo (/oc. cit.) and Pliny (Hist. Nat. v. 29) mention a cave called the Plutonium, filled with pestilential vapours, similar to the cele brated Grotto del Cane in Italy. High up the mountain-side is a deep recess far into the moun tain ; and Mr. Arundell says that he should have supposed that the mephitic cavern lay in this recess, if Mr. Cockerell had not found it near the theatre, the position anciently assig-ned to it. He adds, that the experiments made in this mountain side recess do not seem very conclusive, and con jectures that it may be the same in which Chandler distinguished the area of a stadium (Arundel', Asia Alinor, 2ro). The same writer gives, from the Oriens Christianus, a list of the bishops of Hiera polis down to the time of the emperor Isaac An gelus. Fuller accounts of the ruins, etc., may be seen in the authors named above (comp. also Col. Leake's Geogr. otAsia Minor, pp. 252, 253).-J. K.