Temple Nymphaeum

This monumental fountain, locally called the Temple Nymphaeum, stands inside the sacred precinct of the Temple of Apollo at Hierapolis, near Pamukkale in Denizli province. Built in the second century AD and repaired during the Byzantine period around the fifth and sixth centuries, it followed a U-shaped plan set along the city's main colonnaded street, with niches in its walls once holding statues, including two figures of priestesses now kept in the local museum. Functionally, the nymphaeum was far more than ornamental: it distributed water to houses across Hierapolis through a network of pipes, serving as everyday civic infrastructure as well as a devotional shrine to the nymphs. When Christianity became dominant in the city, a retaining wall built from reused stones of the Apollo temple's own enclosure was placed to screen the older pagan sanctuary from view, and a gate was added in the sixth century. The structure survives today within the Hierapolis-Pamukkale UNESCO World Heritage Site.