Pamukkale's Neighbours: The 2026 Excavation Season in Denizli

Most people come to Pamukkale for a single day, for the travertines and for Hierapolis sitting right on top of them. But the Lykos (Çürüksu) valley around those white terraces is one of the densest clusters of ancient cities in Anatolia. In the 2026 season the soil of this valley is being worked, and news is arriving from several digs at once. What follows is a short map of how the neighbours are doing as you head this way this summer.

Setting the scene: Denizli’s ten excavation sites

Before the individual discoveries, it helps to put this year in a frame. Denizli Metropolitan Municipality has announced that, under a protocol covering 2025 to 2027, it is funding ten separate excavation and research sites across the province in 2026. The list includes ancient cities such as Laodikeia, Tripolis, Kale Tabea, Kolossai and Attouda, alongside mounds like Ekşi, Aşağıseyit, Beycesultan and Yassıhöyük. So the news you are about to read is not a scatter of one-offs, but parts of a single season running at the same time in the same valley.

Kolossai: the first trench opened, 60 rock tombs found

The freshest start is at Kolossai, in Honaz. After three years of surface survey, regular excavation began in the ancient city for the very first time, and just below the surface around 60 trough tombs about 2,200 years old were found, carved side by side into the rock; some still held skeletons. The team led by Dr. Barış Yener of Pamukkale University says the city spreads across roughly 100 hectares, and that the finds capture an unbroken chronology from the Late Chalcolithic down to Honaz becoming Turkish in 1206.

Kolossai carries a further meaning: the Bible’s “Epistle to the Colossians” was written to this city. Like Laodikeia and Hierapolis, it has strong potential for faith tourism, and the fact that digging has only just begun makes it a name to follow in the years ahead.

Laodikeia: an Athena from the rubble of the stage building

At Laodikeia, the largest neighbour closest to Pamukkale, this season’s standout piece came from the West Theatre. In the outer wall of the stage building, left face down inside the rubble fill, a white marble Athena statue about 2 metres tall was brought to light. The head has not yet been found, but the craftsmanship of the garment and the rarity of the cloaked type at the neck show the work of a master hand; the style points to the reign of Emperor Augustus (27 BC to AD 14).

What is intriguing is that the statue presents Athena less as a warrior and more as the goddess of weaving. Laodikeia was an important textile centre in antiquity, so the choice is no accident. The find was first announced by the Minister of Culture and Tourism.

Attouda: a sanctuary for the Phrygian Mother Goddess

At Attouda, in Sarayköy, the team went down to an older layer this season. A sanctuary dedicated to the Phrygian Mother Goddess Matar (Cybele) was uncovered: a Phrygian rock monument dated to the 8th to 6th centuries BC, a sacred cave dedicated to the goddess, and a twin rock figure standing between the two. Roughly 2,600 to 2,800 years old, this site opens a little-known window onto the valley’s pre-Greco-Roman Anatolian past.

Tripolis: the villa of frescoed walls and a fish pool

Tripolis, in Buldan, sits on the bank of the Büyük Menderes at the northern end of the valley. In excavations led by Prof. Dr. Bahadır Duman for thirteen years now, this time a villa spreading across 1,500 square metres, with a fish pool in front of it, was uncovered. Its inner walls are covered in colourful frescoes, laying bare the display of the city’s wealthy class. The eroded soil that has “blanketed” and protected Tripolis is what has kept details like these in good condition to this day.

A mound in Çal: a burnt house and a Seleucid fortress

Just outside the valley, the Aşağıseyit Mound in Çal is another of the season’s talking points. The team led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erim Konakçı has identified eight separate settlement phases at the site, from the Late Chalcolithic to Roman times. This season they reached a burnt house 4,500 years old and, above it, a fortress wall about 2,300 years old. Because the fortress was never resettled later, the team can uncover it with all its data intact; the finds point to the military tension between the Galatians and the Seleucids in the region.

The short version for visitors

Pamukkale is worth a day on its own, but this valley is far more than a single travertine. Alongside Hierapolis, which your ticket already covers, there are open cities within half an hour such as Laodikeia and Tripolis; Kolossai and Attouda are the rising names of the years ahead. As you plan your trip, we keep the lasting details on the tickets and opening hours page, and the timing on the when to visit page. Before heading to an active dig site, confirm its current visiting status; as the season continues, new names will be added to this map.