Antique Pool (Cleopatra's Pool), Pamukkale

The Antique Pool, also known as Cleopatra's Pool, is a warm spring pool inside the ancient city of Hierapolis at Pamukkale, where you swim over marble columns lying on the bottom. The water stays at about 36°C all year. After a 16-month closure for renovation it reopened at the start of May 2026, with a new visitor building that has changing rooms and showers. A swim costs extra on top of the €30 Hierapolis ticket. On our tours it is an optional add-on paid on site, for example on the Pamukkale tour from Pamukkale hotels, from $102 per person.

Key details at a glance

How the pool came to be

Hierapolis grew up around its hot springs, and the area has been known as a place for thermal cures since antiquity. The city also sat in an earthquake zone. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a great earthquake in AD 60 was followed by rebuilding on a Roman grid plan, another destroyed the city in the 7th century, and after a final one in the 14th century it was abandoned.

The pool is a product of those disasters. Reports by the DHA news agency and the local press say it formed naturally after an earthquake in AD 692 brought down columns and the thermal water collected around them. That is why you swim over column shafts and blocks of marble rather than tiles. The water is calcium-rich thermal water at about 36°C in summer and winter alike.

The Cleopatra story

The Cleopatra name comes from a popular belief, repeated in Turkish news reports, that the Egyptian queen once bathed here. It is a legend rather than history: no ancient record ties her to the pool. On the Ministry's website it appears simply as the Antique Pool (Antik Havuz).

What a swim is like

This is a soak more than a swim. The fallen marble lies at different depths, so you move slowly around the columns rather than swimming lengths, and the warm water makes a long stay easy. On cold days steam rises off the surface, which makes winter one of the most atmospheric times to go.

The pool has long been one of the busiest spots in Pamukkale. Before it closed in January 2025, DHA reported about 2,500 visitors a day in summer, and Turkish public holidays bring big crowds, as CNN Türk has reported in past years.

The 2025-26 renovation

The pool closed to visitors in late January 2025 so that illegal buildings around it could be demolished, and at the time no reopening date was given. It reopened at the start of May 2026, after about 16 months. Two new visitor reception centres were also completed, at the pool and at the South Gate, according to a Ministry announcement reported on 7 May 2026. The one at the pool has a restaurant, a gift shop, a kitchen, prayer areas, changing rooms, showers and a buggy stop. The one at the South Gate has ticket desks, buggy hire, a cafeteria and a gift shop.

Local press reported that the operation of the pool passed from DÖSİMM, the Ministry's revolving-fund directorate, to a company called Anadolu Kültürel Girişimcilik A.Ş. New prices came in with the reopening: Pamukkale Haber reported 600 TL for foreign visitors, 235 TL for Turkish adults with a Müzekart and 125 TL for ages 7 to 18. They are not on the Ministry's website, so check the price board at the pool.

Getting to the pool

Hierapolis has three entrances, and in winter the South Gate and North Gate close at 18:00 while the pedestrian entrance from the village closes at 17:00, according to muze.gov.tr.

• From Pamukkale village. Enter through the pedestrian gate and walk up the travertine terraces barefoot. The pool sits about 100 m higher than the village, so allow time for the climb.
• From the South Gate. Buggies can be hired at the new South Gate centre, and there is a buggy stop at the pool.
• From Denizli. Hierapolis is 18 km north of the city. Denizli Çardak Airport is about 70 km away by road, a drive of a little over an hour.
• From Istanbul. Flying to Denizli is the quickest way; our guide to a Pamukkale tour from Istanbul compares the ways to do it.

Best time to go

Summer opening hours run from 06:30 to 21:00, so you can swim early or late and avoid the middle of the day. The water is the same temperature at any hour. If you start the day with our Pamukkale hot air balloon flight at sunrise, from $263 per person, the pool makes an easy next stop. In winter the contrast between warm water and cold air is part of the appeal; just remember the shorter hours and the 17:00 closing of the pedestrian entrance.

Combining the pool with nearby places

• The travertines and Hierapolis. The theatre, the necropolis and the white terraces are covered in our Pamukkale travertines and Hierapolis guide.
• Hierapolis Archaeology Museum. About 150 m away, set in the former Roman baths.
• The Ploutonion and the Temple of Apollo. A short walk from the pool.
• Laodicea. One of the Seven Churches of Revelation, about 12 km south of Pamukkale village by road; see our Laodicea guide.
• The wider area. Hotels and other trips are on our Pamukkale destination page, and our day trips are listed under Pamukkale tours.

Practical tips

• Bring swimwear, a towel and a waterproof pouch for your phone.
• If you enter from the village, arrive well before the pedestrian entrance closes at 17:00 in winter, an hour earlier than the South and North gates.
• The swim is not included in our tour prices; it is paid on site.
• For a photo of the columns without the crowds, come at opening time.

Tours that visit the Antique Pool

• Pamukkale tour from Pamukkale hotels: from $102 per person. A guided six-hour day on the terraces and in Hierapolis, with an optional swim paid on site.
• Pamukkale tour from Denizli Airport: from $131 per person. Airport pick-up, the travertines and Hierapolis, with the route finishing at the pool.
• Pamukkale day trip from Antalya: from $86 per person. Hotel pick-up on the coast, Hierapolis and the terraces, and time for an optional swim.
• Pamukkale day trip from Istanbul: from $387 per person. Return flights to Denizli and a guided visit to Hierapolis and the travertines, with the pool as an optional extra.

Frequently Asked Questions