“…The urban area of Hierapolis, abandoned in the 13th-14th centuries AD during the wars between the Byzantines and Seljuk Turks for control of the Anatolian peninsula, stretches over a travertine shelf looking out onto the broad and fertile valley of the Çürüksu River, corresponding with the ancient Lykos River, one of the tributaries of the Maeander River (today Büyük Menderes River). Hierapolis and its territory were on the northern side of the Lykos valley, corresponding with the modern Denizli basin, and at a short distance from the city, in the same valley, were two other important centers with their territories, Tripolis on the Maeander and Laodikeia on the Lykos (located respectively at about 20 and 10 km to the north-west and south-east of Hierapolis: Figure 1), where recent and extensive investigations performed by Turkish archaeologists have largely increased the knowledge of their history and monuments [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. The building materials used in the monuments of Hierapolis are mainly marble (both white, white veined, and grey), travertine, calcite alabaster, and polychromatic breccia.…”