| T. Allom. | E. Benjamin. |
THE RUINS OF HIERAPOLIS.—NOW CALLED PAMBOUK KALESI.
ON THE WAY FROM LAODICEA.
ASIA MINOR.
Hierapolis, or “the Sacred City,” stands on the confines of ancient Caria and Lydia, in Asia Minor, and a few miles from Laodicea. It is now called Pambouk kalesi, the first part of the name signifies “cotton,” from a very singular phenomenon. On approaching the place, the traveller sees before him the sloping face of a hill, of a pure white, and apparently fleecy texture, swelling into little eminences, and resembling a mass of wool laid upon the surface, and as if slightly agitated by the wind. The soil abounds with hot springs, and this singular appearance is a pure white concrete substance, generated by the water flowing over the steep, and leaving behind a chalky deposit. On being tested with acids, it is found to ferment; and like the dropping-well at Knaresborough, and from the same cause, leaving behind it an incrustated surface of carbonate of lime wherever it flows. The abundance of this concrete deposit was so great formerly, that it performed the function of Amphion’s lyre, and raised spontaneous walls. The water was conducted round edifices and enclosures, and the channels then became long fences of a single stone. When the rill first drips over any surface, it leaves behind it a lurid appearance, resembling wet salt, or half-dissolved snow. Several of the vineyards and gardens are now fenced with this substance.
Over the summit of this chalky cliff appear the remains of Hierapolis. These consist of the ruins of a stadium, and amphitheatre, which no ancient town, yet discovered, has been without; they were the most indispensable, and the most permanently built. The meanest as well as the most insignificant cities seem to have thought them necessary to their well-being. Mixed with these are numerous sarcophagi, with and without covers; the whole occupying a space of one mile in length; and among the inscriptions found are some celebrating this city for its hot springs, declaring it to be revered over Asia for its salubrious rills. It was, therefore, dedicated to Apollo, who, with Æsculapius and Hygeia, appear on the medals which remain. They had another property, that of assisting the tincture extracted from vegetable dyes, and imparting to wool its richest purple.
Besides its hot springs, Hierapolis was distinguished by a very remarkable and deleterious exhalation, called very properly, plutonium, as appertaining to the key of the infernal regions. This was a small excavation in an adjoining mountain, having an area before it of four or five hundred yards in circumference. This space was always filled with a dense vapour, so that the bottom could not be discerned. Like the modern Grotto del Cane, this vapour was mortal to those who breathed it; bulls and other animals were driven into the enclosure, and immediately fell down suffocated; and birds, as at Averno, dropped senseless when attempting to fly across it. The priests of Cybele, availing themselves of this mephitic cavern, pretended to work a miracle. They alone were able to walk through the exhalation unhurt. The imposture is easily detected; the vapour is carbonic acid gas, like that of the grotto in Italy; it is a dense and heavy fluid, which does not rise high above the ground. Animals, whose heads are immersed in it, are immediately suffocated; but those who walk erect, above the surface, pass through it with impunity.