HIERAPOLIS, or (as it was called by the natives) Bamblyee, in Syria, obtained its name of "the sacred city" from having been the principal seat of the worship of the Syrian goddess Astarte. It was the most important city in the district of Cyrrhestice, and was about 22 miles distant from the right bank of the Euphrates. Under the Seleucidae it became a great commercial mart from its being on the great highway between Antioch and Seleucia. The Emperor Constantine made it the capital of the province Euphratensis, and it plays a conspicuous part in the Eastern campaigns of Julian; but with the establishment of Christianity and the abolition of the old worship, Hierapolis fell into insignificance and decay. Its ruins were in modern times first discovered and described by Maundrell, but the position of the city was first accurately fixed by Col. Chesney in the course of his expedition. Of the ancient remains the most important are two temples, a larger and a smaller. The massive architecture of the larger one, splendid even in ruins, seems to point it out as the scene of the worship of Astarte. The other ruins are chiefly Mohammedan. The modern name of the place is Kara Bambuche or Membiz.