Ancient Sardis

Sardis was one of the great cities of western Anatolia from the Bronze Age into the Byzantine period. It was most famous as the capital city of the Lydians, as the city where coins were first minted. The site is located at the foot of Mt. Tmolus, around a sheer acropolis at the edge of the Hermos plain. The Pactolus River became famous for its “golden sands” which enriched the Lydians; the river kept its reputation into late antiquity, although the gold had long run out. In the Hellenistic period it became the western capital of the Seleucid empire until it was incorporated into the Pergamene kingdom. It remained an important city under Roman rule, and was elevated to a provincial capital in Diocletian’s reorganization of the empire. After the disasters of the early 7th century ce, which included a devastating earthquake as well as invasions, it remained a powerful and strategic citadel with imposing fortifications built largely of spolia from the lower city; and remained a strategic spot even into the twentieth century, when this area was fiercely contested in the Turkish War of Independence.