Sardis
Sardis reveals the Lydian kingdom's royal past through a temple, Roman baths and Türkiye's largest ancient synagogue, set in a fertile valley.
Also part of The Seven Churches of Revelation
The ruins of Sardis rise from the floor of the Gediz River valley, where the ancient Lydian kingdom once held sway over western Anatolia. Here, archaeologists have traced layers of occupation spanning from the Lydian period through Roman and Byzantine times, revealing a city that was both a royal capital and a multicultural centre of trade.
The Lydian Heart
Sardis served as the capital of the Lydian kingdom, a realm ruled by dynasties including that of the legendary Croesus. The Lydians are widely credited as the inventors of standardized coinage, a development that transformed ancient commerce. The city's position on the Hermus (Gediz) valley floor placed it on key trade routes connecting the Aegean coast with the Anatolian interior. The Persians captured Sardis in the early sixth century BCE, bringing the Lydian kingdom to an end, though the city continued as a significant settlement under successive empires.
The Temple of Artemis
The most imposing structure surviving from antiquity is the Temple of Artemis, rebuilt during the second century CE on an earlier Hellenistic foundation. Its columns once stood over twelve metres high, and fragments of the entablature and sculptural decoration remain scattered across the site. The temple's scale reflects the importance of Artemis worship in Lydian religious practice and the city's later prosperity under Roman rule.
Roman Baths and Gymnasium
The Roman city sprawls across a hillside above the valley, with a large bath-gymnasium complex among the most fully excavated structures. Mosaic floors, marble revetment and marble statue fragments speak to the luxury fittings that Roman civic architecture demanded. An avenue of columns, likely part of a sacred or civic processional way, leads toward the bath complex.
The Synagogue
One of the most significant discoveries at Sardis is the ancient synagogue, considered the largest known from the Roman world in Asia Minor. Its marble synagogue hall, with its bema (raised platform for scriptural reading) and decorative carvings, accommodated a Jewish community that prospered through the Roman and early Byzantine periods. The building's mosaic panels and Greek inscriptions record donors and community life in considerable detail. This extraordinary structure places Sardis at a crossroads of ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures.
Find it on the map
- Sardis Ancient site
Tours that visit Sardis
No tours visit this place just yet — tell us where you want to go and we'll build one. See all tours
Before you book you should know
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Is this trip right for you?
Our groups are capped at eight travellers, which is about a third of what the industry calls a small group. Eight people share one vehicle, one table at dinner and one guide's attention, and the day can change on the road without anybody being left behind. If you are looking for a coach, a fixed script and a microphone, this is not that.
Most days involve real walking, often on ground that was laid two thousand years before walking shoes: marble worn smooth, cobbles, uneven steps and long site paths with little shade. Bring shoes you can spend a morning in.
Some days move between regions and are largely a drive, with stops along the way. Summers are hot — well over 35°C inland — and winters are colder than most people expect, so layers, a hat and sunscreen earn their place in the bag whatever the month.
How demanding a particular trip is, is written on the trip itself: the physical rating in the header, and the day-by-day itinerary above.
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Rooms, and travelling on your own
Trip prices are per person, sharing a twin room. Each traveller picks their own room while booking, so a party can mix the three:
- Twin share — two single beds, shared with someone you are travelling with or with a traveller of the same gender.
- Travelling as a couple — one double room.
- Individual room — a room of your own, for a single supplement on top of the trip price. Availability is limited, and the supplement for a given date is shown next to the option when you book.
Solo travellers are welcome on every departure, and most of our groups have one or two aboard.
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Accommodation
The hotels named in an itinerary are a guideline rather than a guarantee. Where one is full, or has dropped below the standard we booked it for, we substitute a property of a similar standard in the same area — we would rather change the hotel than the trip.
Check-in is usually mid-afternoon. If you arrive early we will ask for the room, but no hotel can promise one before its own check-in time; luggage can normally be left at reception in the meantime. If you want the room from the night before, ask us and we will add the extra night to your booking.
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Passports, visas and insurance
Entry requirements depend on your nationality and change without much notice, so the only reliable source is the official one: the government of the country you are travelling to, and your own foreign ministry's travel advice. Check both before you book a flight.
Many countries ask for a passport valid for at least six months beyond your travel dates, and for blank pages. It is worth looking at yours now rather than at the airport.
We ask every traveller to carry travel insurance covering medical treatment and repatriation, and we would strongly encourage cover for cancellation and for your luggage as well.
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Your departure is guaranteed — the day can change
Once a departure is on the calendar it runs. We do not cancel a trip for want of a minimum number of bookings, so a booked date is one you can plan flights and leave around.
What can move is the shape of a day. Museums and archaeological sites change their hours, roads close, weather turns, a local holiday lands in the middle of the week. Where that happens your guide reorders the day, or swaps a stop for one of the same weight, and tells you why. Changes to a booked itinerary are covered by our Booking Terms & Conditions.
