Best Things to Do in Denizli

Most coach tours rush through Denizli province in three hours, seeing only the front edge of Pamukkale's travertines at midday. Slow down for two or three days and you can pair world-class Roman cities with underground caves, mountain plateaus and traditional craft bazaars in almost complete peace.

1. Walk the colonnaded streets and churches of Laodicea. Just 6 km north of downtown Denizli, walk along Syria Street, peer through glass walkways at restored Roman villa frescoes, stand inside the 4th-century Church of Laodicea (one of the Seven Churches of Revelation) and look across two grand stone theatres.
2. Combine Pamukkale's white travertines with Hierapolis at golden hour. Time your barefoot walk on the calcium terraces and your visit to the Roman theatre, Martyrium of St Philip and Cleopatra's Antique Pool for late afternoon when day-trip buses have departed; see how to visit from Denizli.
3. Ride the Bağbaşı Cable Car (Denizli Teleferik) to the 1,400-metre plateau. Ascend straight up the pine-covered southern mountain wall from Bağbaşı district to cool highland air, wooden bungalows, nomad hair-tents (Yörük çadırı) and panoramic views over the city.
4. Explore Tripolis on the Meander without the crowds. Walk a 3 km² Roman city above the Büyük Menderes valley near Yenicekent, complete with a vaulted market hall, terracotta water pipes and a sheltered Mosaic House.
5. Descend into the underground travertines of Kaklık Cave. Thirty kilometres east of Denizli, a collapsed sinkhole reveals tiered white limestone pools inside a sunlit cavern fed by sulphur-rich thermal streams.
6. Soak in the iron-red waters of Karahayıt. Five kilometres north of Pamukkale, mineral-rich hot springs stain the travertine mounds vivid rust, crimson and ochre.
7. Eat wood-fired Denizli kebabı in Kaleiçi Bazaar. Browse the historic copper, ironmongery and textile lanes of old Denizli, then sit down at a third-generation kebab master's oven at noon.
8. Shop for hand-loomed cotton in Buldan and Babadağ. Visit the timber-framed Ottoman hillside houses of Buldan where weavers still produce airy Buldan bezi shawls, peshtemals and linen.
9. Have a trout lunch beside Güney Waterfall. Follow the vineyard plateau above the Cindere Dam to a mossy travertine cascade overhanging the Menderes gorge.
10. Step inside the 13th-century Akhan Caravanserai and Çardak Han. Examine carved Seljuk portals and animal reliefs along the medieval caravan road.