Martirio di San Filippo Apostolo   33940
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Location: Hierapolis (440 m)      by: Pedrotti Alberto
Area: Turkey      Date: 04-08-2008
This particular octagonal temple rises on the spot where, according to one tradition, the apostle was murdered: whence the name.
Hierapolis lies on the hill immediately above the white pools of Pamukkale. The most visited spots ar the old Roman baths (where, paying a specific ticket, one can have an old-Roman swim...) and the theatre.
Notable is also the extended necropolis: in Roman ages Hierapolis was a well-known thermal place and - like nowadays happens - it visitors where, more often than not, elder or/and ill people...
The Martyrion rises, hidden and lonely, a little higher on the hill; under the unforgiving sun nearly none of the tourists - neither the Japanese with their umbrellas - undertake the ten-minute walk to the site. If one has the luck of being here alone with the sole accompaniment of the singing cicadas, this becomes a highly suggestive and meditative place.
For the title I chose the Italian name in honor to the reputed Italian team carrying on the excavation of Hierapolis - with some helps from Germany, as was explained to me by the archaeologists whom I had met on the ship Brindisi - Cesme.
A little meditation is in order here, one of those that can be made walking around the silent temple: It is amazing to see what an amount of excellence we still have inside and outside Italy, even though the systematic destruction of culture performed by nearly two decades ot Berlusconian régime!
The photos of Hierapolis and Pamukkale were taken during my 2008 ship+bicycle tour of the Mediterranean sea: Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, southern Italy, Turkey, Rhodos, Crete and Peloponnese. A description of this tour can be found at the page http://forum.thetop.it/viewtopic.php?t=3144

Comments

Great!

Regards,
JÖRG
2011/02/20 21:05 , Jörg Engelhardt
Pretty much unique. Very nice. LG Robert
2011/02/21 21:04 , Robert Viehl
The place is indeed suggestive, if fully exploits the fascination of "old stones".
As for the photo, I consider it a sort of companion to #6150...
2011/02/23 00:33 , Pedrotti Alberto

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Pedrotti Alberto

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