Pamukkale Travertines

The first and most important settlements of the province  is on  Beyce sultan Tmulus on the way to Çivril dated 6000 BC. According to the sources, the first inhabitants were the Arzawans, fore fathers of Hittites, time between 1200-1700 BC  and then the area became the Phrygian dominant after the Dark Ages in 800 BC. Xenophon tells us one of the most important settlements in the west of Phrygia was Colossea, called Honaz today. After the collapse of the Phrygians , region fell into the hands of the Lydians under the commander of King Coressos.

Hellenistic time began with Alexander the great in 334 BC and after his death, one of his generals , Selekos I ruled the area for  twenty years then the province became the part of the Pergamene kingdom and in 129 BC the city, especially Hierapolis and Laodicea became two important cities of Roman province of Asia. Laodecia became  the rich city as the banking center and the city of purple dye with eye solve and Hierapolis became the spa center for Roman troops and aristocrat families. Rome also made big highways  for safe trade.

After the Roman Empire was split into two at the end of the 4th C AD, the area was ruled by the Eastern Roman empire called Byzantine and the  glory was ended up in 7th and 8th  centuries  as the less populated small town. Arab raids began in 9th and 10th centuries . In 1040 Turkoman troops took over the city just after the Dandanakan battlefield  and Turkish era began. Denizli and its surroundings  changed hands between the Turks and the Byzantines until the end of the 12th century and finally  when Seljuk Sultan Kaykhusraw I took over the throne of Selçuk Empire in 1207, passed into  the hands of the Turks again. The Sultan permitted to settle about 200.000 Turkomen tents of the  Nomadic Turkoman  families down in and around the city.

In Ottoman period  was in 1360 first  but Tamerlenk destroyed the Ottoman state at the battle of Ankara in 1402 and as a result  the town was given back to Germiyanoglu principality. In 1429 the whole Germiyan land with Denizli passed into the hands of the Ottomans. The city had a chance to get developed in Ottoman period in 15th C AD due to the famous Turkish guilds founder called Ahi Evran came to Denizli and established a big guilds association here. Buldan  has become the famous textile town for Ottoman Janissary troops as to make  military uniforms and nice clothes and fabrics in looms and workbences have produced Buldan clothes for concibunes and Queen mothers for centuries. Denizli divided into three major states under Ottoman rule till 1920 and it became a province as Denizli in 1923 when Turkey was proclaimed as a new country.