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Sardis, a Visitor's Guide to the Lydian Capital

A Lydian Capital on the Road to Sart The ruins of ancient Sardis lie in the town of Sart, which belongs to the Salihli district of Manisa.

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Sardis, a Visitor's Guide to the Lydian Capital

A Lydian Capital on the Road to Sart

The ruins of ancient Sardis lie in the town of Sart, which belongs to the Salihli district of Manisa. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Culture Portal writes that this was the capital of the Lydian state and that excavations show settlement in the area for more than five thousand years. According to the museum page of the ministry, the city was founded by a king named Meles in the Hermos (Gediz) basin, on the bank of the Paktalos (Sartçayı) and on the northern slopes of the hills west of Tmolos (Bozdağ). The Persians, who ended the Lydian Kingdom in the 6th century BC, turned the city into a satrapy centre. Sardis kept its importance in the Hellenistic and Roman periods and continued into the Byzantine era. The Culture Portal adds that from the 7th century BC to the 7th century AD, fourteen centuries in all, the city remained significant for transport, administration and trade.

This long life works in the visitor's favour. In a single walk you can follow a timeline that runs from the Lydian fortification to the Roman bath and gymnasium complex. Today the ancient city holds remains of walls, a temple, a gymnasium and bath, shops, a theatre and a stadium. These remains are not gathered inside one fenced archaeological park. They are spread along both sides of a road that passes through a village. This guide explains in what order to look at things, how the excavations came about, and what to check before you go.

The Lydian Kingdom and the Paktolos Stream

According to the Culture Portal, the wealth of Sardis rested on agriculture, livestock, trade and the gold mining carried out in the Paktolos, also called the Sart Stream. It is no accident that the city grew beside a stream. The fertile Gediz basin fed food production, the stream supplied gold and the roads of the basin carried trade. If you keep the course of the stream and the slope of the hillsides in mind as you walk the site, it becomes easier to understand why the city grew here.

One of the most striking Lydian remains is the city's fortification and gate system. The excavation team's page at Sardis Expedition states that the Lydian fortification wall and gate were discovered in 1976 by Andrew Ramage. Crawford Greenewalt, who directed the expedition for many years, focused his work on the city of the Lydian period, on its walls and its gate. The same page mentions monumental terraces that probably formed the core of the Lydian city. They are studied in the excavation areas called ByzFort and Field 49. The expedition also reports that a protective roof was built over the Lydian fortification in 2023. In other words, the structure is both protected and still under study today.

Gold, Silver and the First Coins

The Culture Portal presents Sardis as the place known in history as the first where money was minted under state guarantee. The museum page likewise says that Sardis, the capital of the Lydian state, is where money was first minted. Think of this as the main idea of the visit. Most of the stones you see belong to the Roman period, but the city's place in world history comes from Lydian trade and its monetary economy.

The Sardis Expedition page gives a concrete example from the field. Among the work that began in 1958 was the excavation of a Lydian gold refinery in the sector called PN, or Pactolus North. The expedition writes that this excavation revealed early and technologically sophisticated chemical processing. This shows that the gold of the Paktolos was not only collected but also worked in the city. Refining the metal, striking the coin and trading were three links of the same story.

This excavation area may not be part of the general visitor route. Keep it in mind as a kind of map, and as you read the information panels on site, remember where this wealth came from. If you want to see coins themselves, check the current exhibition information of the relevant museums on their official pages.

The Bath and Gymnasium Complex

The Culture Portal singles out the monumental bath and gymnasium complex among the Roman structures preserved in the city to this day. According to the museum page, the square courtyard surrounded by columns that fills the eastern half of the complex, the palaestra, was used for sports. The vaulted halls to the west of this courtyard served as the bath. The two-storey columned space that connects the palaestra to the bath section is called the marble court.

Choosing this as the first stop in the ancient city is a good idea, because the building is both large and easy to read as a plan. First take in the breadth of the open palaestra. Then turn to the vaulted bath halls in the west. Finally, look at the marble court and follow the arrangement of its two storeys through the columns. This order helps you walk through the daily routine of an ancient gymnasium, with exercise first and bathing afterwards.

According to Sardis Expedition, the excavation and restoration of the complex are among the main results of the Hanfmann era. The same page reports that Byzantine shops were also excavated in the northwestern part of the city. So layers of buildings from different periods stand side by side around the complex. If you plan to take photographs, I recommend photographing the columned courtyard in the low light of morning or late afternoon.

The Temple of Artemis and Its Roman Rebuilding

The Temple of Artemis is the most frequently mentioned structure of Sardis in architectural terms. The Culture Portal describes it as one of the magnificent temples of the Ionic order. According to the museum page, construction began in the Hellenistic period, and the building was originally made in the name of Artemis. In later periods the cella, the part where statues stood, was divided into four sections. Statue heads belonging to Artemis, Zeus Polieus, Emperor Antoninus Pius and his wife Faustina were found in these sections.

The turning point in the building's history is the earthquake of AD 17. The museum page writes that the temple, which collapsed in that earthquake, was rebuilt according to the old plan during the reign of Emperor Tiberius. So the columns in front of you show a Roman-era repair that tried to preserve the earlier plan. Look closely at the shafts and capitals, and compare the scale of the structure with your own height.

According to Sardis Expedition, the name that brought the temple and much of its precinct to light in the first large scientific excavation is Howard Crosby Butler. The expedition continues excavation and conservation in the Artemis area today. According to the Culture Portal's directions, when you come from Salihli the temple stays on the left side of the road, while the ancient city is on the right. Coming from Izmir, the arrangement is reversed. A view of the temple from the northwest appears in the cover photograph of this article.

The Bin Tepe Tumuli

The Culture Portal writes that more than a hundred tumuli have been identified in the Lydian royal cemetery, which is the necropolis of the city and is known today as Bin Tepeler. A tumulus is an artificial hill made by piling earth over the dead. These mounds lie in an area separate from the city ruins of Sardis and call for a separate travel plan. According to Sardis Expedition, excavations were carried out in the tumuli at Bin Tepe in the Hanfmann era, including the colossal mound of Karnıyarık Tepe.

During Butler's excavations of 1910 to 1914 and 1922, more than 1,100 tombs were uncovered in the Necropolis of Sardis. Greenewalt, because of his interest in the Lydian world, also turned to the tumuli of Bin Tepe. This information shows us that the area is not merely a landscape but an archaeological field that has been studied for more than a century.

Before going to Bin Tepeler, learn about transport and access from the official pages. Keep in mind that the site spreads over a flat plain in low and broad mounds, and go prepared for wind and sun.

The Story of the Excavations from Butler to Today

The first large-scale scientific excavations at Sardis were carried out by Howard Crosby Butler of Princeton University. According to the Sardis Expedition page, Butler came at the invitation of Osman Hamdi Bey, director of the Imperial Museum. Between 1910 and 1914, and in a final season in 1922, Butler uncovered the Temple of Artemis and much of its precinct. The excavations ended because of Butler's unexpected death and the unsettled political situation of the time.

A new expedition was founded in 1958. George Hanfmann of Harvard University and Henry Detweiler of Cornell University founded the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis with the permission and support of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In the Hanfmann era the bath and gymnasium complex, the Byzantine shops, the Lydian gold refinery, the Acropolis, the Bin Tepe tumuli and the prehistoric settlements on the shore of the Gygaean Lake were excavated. Crawford Greenewalt directed the expedition for more than thirty years, from 1976 to 2007, and Nicholas Cahill of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has directed it since 2008.

Today the expedition studies the Lydian palatial complex in the F49 and ByzFort areas, excavation and conservation in the Artemis area, the western gate of the city and a Lydian residential area west of the Temple of Artemis. Sardis is therefore not a finished excavation but a living research area.

How to Visit and How to Get There

According to the Culture Portal's directions, the asphalt road from Salihli to Sart is the backbone of the site. The ancient city lies on one side of the road and the Temple of Artemis on the other. Visitors coming from the Izmir direction reach Sart via Turgutlu and Ahmetli. The museum page notes that toilet and shop facilities are available.

Operating arrangements are published separately for summer and winter. Because opening and closing times and ticket information change, check current details on the museum page of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The site is outdoors. Bring comfortable shoes, a hat and water. If possible, arrive early in the morning. Visiting the bath and gymnasium complex first and then the Temple of Artemis across the road gives the walk a sensible order. The site also lies within the borders of the Kula-Salihli UNESCO Global Geopark.

The UNESCO Listing and Conservation Work

According to the Culture Portal, Sardis and the Lydian Tumuli of Bin Tepe were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2025. The listing treats the area not as a single ancient settlement but as a whole made up of the city and its necropolis. The excavation team reports that the protective roof over the Lydian fortification was built in 2023 and that it is developing conservation projects for other parts of the site.

For this reason, prepare to walk through an excavation and conservation area that is still at work, not simply to visit a museum. Read the information panels, stay on marked paths and move through the ruins without touching them.

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