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Anatolian Civilizations and Historical Sites - TEDA

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ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS:10x19 antik kentler 8/1/11 10:51 AM Sayfa<br />

looking from the main entrance towards the west.<br />

of the ruins we see today are from this period. Sardis was the site of one<br />

of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor. Sardis continued to be important<br />

during Byzantine times <strong>and</strong> was an episcopal center. The Sardian church<br />

located behind the Artemis temple was built during the 5 th century AD. In<br />

615 Sardis was destroyed by the Sassanids. The city suffered from attacks<br />

by the Seljuk Turks who took possession of it in the early 14 th century. The<br />

city surrendered to the Ottomans around 1390 <strong>and</strong> was destroyed again<br />

twelwe years later when Tamerlane passed though. Excavations conducted<br />

by Americans at Sardis in 1910-14 unearthed the Temple of<br />

Artemis <strong>and</strong> more than a thous<strong>and</strong> Lydian tombs. The works that they<br />

brought to light are now in the New York Metropolitan Museum.<br />

Excavations by an American team under the direction of Nicolas Cahill are<br />

still in progress at Sardis <strong>and</strong> there are four principle areas now that may<br />

125

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