Pluto's Gate

Pluto's Gate - Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Ploutonion at Hierapolis ( ,Alternative spelling: . lit "Place of Pluto"; ) or Pluto's GateD'Andria, Francesco. "Gate to Hell Found in Turkey ". Discovery News 29 March 2013. Accessed 1 June 2013. was a ploutonion (a religious site dedicated to the god Pluto) in the ancient city of Hierapolis near Pamukkale in modern Turkey's Denizli Province. The site was discovered in 1965 by Italian archaeologists, who published reports on their excavations throughout the decade. Following the studies carried out on site in 1998, a geologist of the Italian National Research Council, Luigi Piccardi, recognized that the origin of both the Ploutonion and of the nearby Apollo's Oracle of Hierapolis was linked to the existence of the surface trace of a seismic fault, on which both sanctuaries were purposely built and which was revered as Gateway of Hades. In 2013, it was further explored by Italian archaeologists led by Francesco D'Andria, a professor of archaeology at the University of Salento. As part of a restoration project, a replica of the marble statue of Hades and Cerberus has been restored to its original place. The statue is known to have been there in ancient times.Hades and his dog return to Gate of Hell Read more on Wikipedia

type: ancient site
date from: 2nd century BC

Source: en.wikipedia.org