MANİSA & SARDES ANTİC CİTY TOURS

Manisa & Sardes Antique City

The city is dominated by the ancient acropolis, which rises 300 meters above the surrounding plain, “the strongest place in the world” according to Polybius (9.20.12). The Pactolus stream (modern Sart Çayı) runs by the base of the citadel, and was famous in antiquity for its alluvial gold, making the Iron Age Lydians the wealthiest people in the world. The lower city within the Roman fortification walls covers some 127 hectares, and the citadel, major suburban sanctuaries, habitation and industrial areas, and cemeteries extend at least another 100 hectares outside the city walls. The site was occupied from the Late Bronze Age until the modern era, although it ceased to be a major urban center in the early seventh century AD.

As the capital city of the Lydians, a native Iron Age Anatolian people, Sardis came to rule an empire that encompassed most of western Anatolia in the seventh and sixth centuries BC. Lydian Sardis was conquered by the Persians in 547 BC, and became the seat of one of the most important satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire. Alexander the Great captured the city in 330 BC, and although he “restored their former customs,” the Lydian and Persian royal capital was gradually converted to a Greek polis, with Greek institutions such as the council house, theater, gymnasium, and the famous temple of Artemis, the fourth largest Ionic temple in the ancient world. Under Roman rule, Sardis continued to flourish, although it never gained the stature it had had under the Lydians. It housed magnificent colonnaded avenues, monumental imperial baths, important temples of the Imperial cult, and an arms factory. It is during this period that the citizens of the city built the largest synagogue known in the ancient world. During the fourth century, Sardis became an important Christian center, the site of one of the Seven Churches of Asia. By the close of the sixth century AD, Sardis constituted a city with a very rich heritage, the ancestral home of Lydians, the birthplace of coinage, the location of the Temple of Artemis, and a community that supported Jewish and Christian faiths. A Lydian industrial sector outside the city walls, which preserves the earliest evidence in the world for the refining of electrum into pure gold and silver, the Lydian fortification, which enclosed the city with a massive defense 20 m wide at the base and preserved up to 10 m high, larger than any other defense work in Anatolia, well-preserved Lydian houses, late Roman houses, natural terraces, the Acropolis with Lydian architectural remains and major Byzantine fortifications, the Temple of Artemis, the fourth largest Iconic temple in the world, a Roman Bath-Gymnasium complex with its monumental columned Marble Court, a Sanctuary of the Roman Imperial cult, The adjacent theater and stadium, the Synagogue, the largest in the ancient world, a small chapel, the Byzantine Shops, burial tombs are the major buildings and building complexes of the ancient Sardis.

MANİSA & SARDES ANTİC CİTY TOURS

Sardis was a preeminent city of the ancient world, located in Sart town of Salihli district of Manisa, served as the capital of the Lydian State in ancient times. It is known as the place where money was first printed under the guarantee of the state in history. This is the starting point of the famous King's Road, the homeland of Karun, whose name is synonymous with wealth. Bin Tepeler, located on the southern edge of Lake Marmara and a Lydian tumulus cemetery, is considered the largest tumulus site in the world. The Ancient City of Sardis and the Thousand Hills Lydian Tumulus are on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.out the Tample of Artemis, Akropol, Roman Bath, Sinagogand Gymnasiumtouch visiters heart
Once upon time, Sardes Antique City was one of the most important, strategic area

This tour is between 08:00-18:00 every day.

Duration: 9 hours

Places to visit: Acropolis-Temple of Cybele-Temple Of Dıana-Temple of Artemis -Roman Bath Church-Pactalos-Royal Road-Synagogue-Gymnasıum-Manisa-Muradiye Mosque-Weepıng Rock Nıobe

Tour Prices:

• 125 € Per Person

Included

• Hotel Pick up and Drop off (from Çeşme Hotels)
• Professional Tour Guide
• Transportation by A/C vehicle,
• Entrance Tickets ( sardes )
• Lunch
• Parking fees for the vehicle.
• Drop-off to your hotel

Excluded

• Drinks (at lunch)
• Any Private Expenses
• Optional tips to the drivers and guides

Important to know

All of our tours are group tours. Contact us for your private tour requests.
Please dress accordingly to the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes
This tour may be operated by a multilingual guide
If you have special dietary requirements, please contact directly the local tour provider. You can find their contact information in the voucher after booking
The duration of transfers is 2 hours approximate, the exact duration will depend on the time of day and traffic conditions
A passport is required for the tour
This tour is not wheelchair accessible .Entrance fees to Terrace House and Virgin Mary House are not included, as this is not an obligatory part of the tour. You can pay to our Agency before joining the tour