Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis

Colossae, an unexcavated mound

Our next step in our travels (after Miletus and Ephesus) was to visit the cities of Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis, which sit in close proximity to each other, about 15 minutes apart by bus. The first stop was Colossae, which has had no excavation work done on it. It is literally just a big hill where a few old ruins are poking out here and there. While this sounds boring, it was actually quite interesting to see what these sites used to look like; pre-excavation virtually all of these sites were simply hills like that.

Bethany & I atop the Colossian mound

Next we visited Laodicea which is a very recently developed site. It has only been open to the public for about 2 years. It has a sizeable area that has been excavated and is available for observation. Apparently they are still working on other parts, so this site should continue to improve.

Laodicean agora

Finally, we went Hierapolis (mentioned at the end of Colossians). For more details about what that is like, you can check this post that I did after seeing Hierapolis with Brad.

The necropolis (city of the dead) at Hierapolis;
Those are the sarcophagi (stone coffins) lying around.

Finally, a few thoughts from these cities: The water sources for these cities are of interest. Colossae's water apparently came from a cold mountain stream. Hierapolis's water was the various hot springs in their area. Laodecia had neither; and their water was lukewarm, probably due to piping in water from both Colossae and Hierapolis, yet the water would have lost it's temperature by the time it got there. Thus, the Laodiceans had neither the relaxing hot springs nor the refreshing cool water... just tepid water. The Laodiceans would have had a very good grasp of the blessing of cold or hot water and the distastefulness of the lukewarm.  Now, think through what it means to be either hot or cold... to be useful and profitable to those around you, not of barely tolerable benefit to those in need.

Related posts: Seven Churches Intro and Miletus; Sardis, Thyatira, Philadelphia, Smyrna; Pergamum; previous trip to Hierapolis; previous trip to Ephesus; trip to Cappodocia