Anatolian Civilizations and Historical Sites - TEDA

ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS:10x19 antik kentler 8/1/11 10:51 AM Sayfa
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be visited: the Sardian acropolis, the ancient city located around it and
along the highway, the valley of the Paktolos River (Sart Çay›), and the
tombs at Bintepe. We will start our tour with the ruins by the highway.
Immediately by the highway are the imposing ruins of a gymnasion and
baths to which a synagogue was added at a later time. The complex is
entered through a door located in the center of the eastern section. This
door leads into a colonnade-encircled open courtyard. This courtyard
connects to the synagogue located on the north and served as the
gymnasion's palaestra. On the northern side of the courtyard are rooms
used for instruction and training. From inscriptions that have been turned
up in excavations, we know that the decorative eastern facade of the
gymnasion was built during the reign of the emperors Caracalla and Geta
(around the beginning of the 3 rd century AD) Taking advantage of the fragments
found here, the gymnasion's facade has been successfully restored.
The baths were entered through doors opening into the courtyard.
Originally built in 161 AD during the reign of Lucius Verus, they
underwent major repairs in 211. The synagogue and eastern section of the
baths were restored between 1964 and 1973. The main street of the city
streched along the southern sides of the synagogue and gymnasion. Paved
with huge marble blocks, there were shops located on either side of this
street. On the southern side of this marble street there where colonnades
that where built in the 4 th century AD but they now lie beneath the
asphalt road. The shops on the northern side of the street and those along
the southern side of the synagogue and gymnasion are from the
Byzantine Period.
On the other side of the highway opposite the gymnasion is a huge
structure called the ‘Bronze House of the Infidels’. Excavations that have
been conducted here have turned up numerous bronze works of a
religious nature. This building dates to around AD 550 and may have been
a bishop's palace. South west of the bronze house are the remains of the
Lydian agora which numerous ceramics dating from the 8 th to the 4 th
century BC have been found. Along the southern foot of the acropolis one
sees the remains of Byzantine Period walls. Proceeding along the highway
in the direction of Salihli, we come to a large Roman Period structure with
a courtyard located on the northern side of the road. Here one may see the
ruins of a Byzantine church and of a Roman bath with wall paintings. The
terrain on the southern side of the road rises towards the acropolis.
Immediately by the road is a building that was used for municipal business