Since the Bakkers and we had already seen the ancient ruins of Ephesus, we left Pamukkale and headed over to two towns nearby; Laodicea and Aphrodisias.
Laodicea
The Laodiceans get a shout out from the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Colossians. We made a visit to the church of Laodicea which rewarded us with some awesome tilework and a baptistry.
We almost walked past a giant theater, which was tucked into the hillside and not visible on the horizon as we walked. It was quite something to suddenly stumble upon this massive ruin.
Aphrodisias
This place doesn’t get the crowds that Ephesus draws, but it is a fantastic site. The museum has a massive collection of sculptures found here. They certainly tell a story of a beautiful city worthy of being named for Aphrodite. This place became an unexpected favorite.
These individualized face carvings use to crown the entire top surround of columns. There are so many they just stacked them into a big wall. So we decided to play a game and see if we could find our doppelgänger.
Aphrodisias museum was a show stopper.
