Plutonium

In the archaeological excavations carried out in the Hierapolis Ancient City (Hierapolis Antik Kenti), the Plutonium Sanctuary (Hell’s Gate) (Cehennem Kapısı) and the entrance of the cave, which was accepted as the “gateway to the land of the dead” in the ancient world where they were unearthed. In the Ancient Age, in which the pagan belief was dominant, Hierapolis means “Holy City”. This name: it comes from the existence of a cave through which thermal waters and gas (carbon dioxide) that causes the deaths of living beings coming close to it escape. Because of these features, the cave was regarded as the entrance to the underworld, where the god Pluto and his wife Persophone ruled. Around the cave was placed a sanctuary, a great touristic visit in Antiquity and built between the 1^st century BCE and the 3^rdcentury CE. Visitors to this sanctuary include Cicero, Emperor Hadrian, and Caracalla, the philosopher Damascus, as the most famous. Visitors dropped birds into the cave, and they were immediately poisoned to death.

The building complex, unearthed as a result of the excavations carried out in the 2013 excavation season in the Plutonion Sanctuary (Hell’s Gate), constitutes a unique site in the world. In excavations, it enabled the original source of thermal waters that created famous Pamukkale travertine pools to be brought to light. In addition, it led to the discovery of the sanctuary built around the cave, where the carbon anhydride gas that caused the death of small animals and birds that approached.

Among the most valuable artifacts found in the excavation are a marble head of the goddess Aphrodite and a marble Dionysos Statue (Dionysos Heykeli), made in Hellenistic time, with a special hair system and two holes in her ear for wearing gold earrings. In addition, the most extraordinary find is a marble snake statue and a marble statue of Kerberos, taken out of the water and protecting the entrance to the cave.

The three-headed “Hell Dog of Hades”, a unique work in the world in terms of its height Marble Kerberos statue at 1.30 m., stands at the Gate of Hell according to mythology.