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The Seven Churches of Revelation

The seven churches named in the first three chapters of Revelation appear to exercise a lasting appeal to Christian minds. Quite why this should be so I really do not know, as very little known about six of the churches and even the seventh, Ephesus, is only remarkable for a couple of early legends and a church council of two. Nevertheless, if you experience the urge to visit these places, this is what you will find.

Ephesus

Ephesus stands at the head of a wide gulf where the Cayster River empties into the Aegean Sea. To the south is the Meander River, whose tortuous path to the sea gave its name to a whole class of rivers, while to the north is the Hermus River. Both watered wide, fertile valleys whose agriculture provided the base for Ephesus' prosperity.

In Ionian times the sea came almost up to the foot of the acropolis, now known as Aya Soluk, forming a natural harbour from where an extensive trade was carried on. The harbour progressively silted up, however. In Roman times the harbour was at the foot of the Arkadiane Road leading down from the Great Theatre. Today it is more than four miles away and Ephesus has lost the reason for its existence.

The first inhabitants of Ephesus were Lelegians or Carians, though other legends claim that the Amazons were the original settlers. They worshipped Cybele, the Anatolian mother goddess, whose sanctuary was at the northern foot of 430' high Mt Pion, now known as Panayir Dagh.

In historical times King Androklos, son of the king of Athens, settled on the site about 1,000 BC in accordance with instructions from the oracle at Delphi. Very little remains of this city apart from a small portion of wall built of polygonal masonry. However these early settlers left an enduring legacy by identifying the Anatolian Cybele with their own Artemis the huntress, thus producing Artemis, the goddess of fertility.

Croesus of Lydia conquered Ephesus about 560 BC and rebuilt the Temple of Artemis. Some of the columns and capitals he donated are in the British Museum with his name carved on them. The temple was designed and built by the famous Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes. He deliberately chose marshy ground as a protection against earthquakes which, of course, were a real danger in Crete and possibly in Asia Minor as well.

In 356 BC, on the very night that Alexander the Great was born, a lunatic set fire to this temple "so that his name might become famous". Other historians have recorded his name but I shall not. I see no reason to encourage such wanton vandalism.

When Alexander came to Ephesus twenty-two years later the citizens were hard at work rebuilding the temple, with Dinocrates as the architect. Alexander offered to pay all the expenses, both past and future, provided that he was permitted to place his name in the dedicatory inscription but the citizens declined, excusing themselves on the grounds that it was not fitting for one god — Alexander — to make a dedication to another. Nevertheless Alexander was sufficiently impressed with Dinocrates' work that he later employed him to build Alexandria in Egypt. It is nice to record that Dinocrates was equally impressed with Alexander and later proposed to carve Mt Athos into a statue of him. Fortunately the funds were not forthcoming.

This temple, which St Paul and St John knew, was one of the Seven Wonders of the world and stood until 263 AD when it was burned by the Goths. As most of Asia Minor was Christian by then no one bothered to rebuild it and many of the materials were re-used in the Basilica of St John in Ephesus and the famous Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

To go with the new temple, Lysimachus, one of Alexander's generals, built a new city in 287 BC, laying it out on the higher ground between Mt Pion and 1,176' high Mt Koressos, now known as Bülbül Dagh. The citizens were reluctant to move, so Lysimachus waited until the rainy season and then had the drains blocked. The resulting flood persuaded people that higher ground was a good idea.

Lysimachus built a 5 mile long wall around his new city, well-preserved sections of which can be seen on the ridge between the two peaks. The city was laid out on a grid plan where all the streets met at right-angles, apart from Kouretes Street, which followed an older, winding path.

After Lysimachus' death Ephesus was ruled by the Egyptian Ptolemies, then by the Seleucids and finally it came under the city state of Pergamum until it was taken over by the Romans. Under their rule it became the largest and most important city in Asia Minor.

In the Byzantine period the city declined as the harbour silted up. Christians preferred to live on the Aya Soluk hill around the tomb and church of St John the Theologian — indeed, Aya Soluk is a corruption of Hagios Theologos. The city gradually migrated here and the Roman city was used as a convenient quarry. The main gate into the Byzantine city was adorned with reliefs of Achilles killing Hector, which were later taken to represent Christian martyrs, hence the name for this gateway of Persecution Gate or Martyrs Gate.

The city declined even further after the Turkish conquest and today is little more than a village called Selcuk. Its largest building is the Isa Bey mosque, completed in 1375, which stands next to the Basilica of St John.

Excavations in Ephesus began in 1863 and continued for eleven years under J. H. Wood, whose main aim on behalf of the British Museum was to find the Temple of Diana, the Artemision. The lucky break came when he discovered an inscription on the east wall of the south entrance to the Great Theatre which described the route followed by the annual sacred procession.

According to this inscription, the festival procession began at the Artemision, entered the city at the Magnesian Gate, followed Kouretes Street round to the theatre and then went out by the Koressos Gate and back to the Artemision. Wood was able to identify this Procession Street and simply excavated along it until he reached the temple, which involved moving 132,000 cubic yards of earth. The temple itself was buried under 20' of debris and nothing more than a few foundation stones and broken columns remained.

Subsequent excavations have cleared and identified (in some cases, reconstructed as well) the buildings mentioned below.

Agora
South-west from the theatre is the Hellenistic or Commercial Agora, which was there in Paul's day. Many of the shops which surrounded it have not yet been excavated but Miltner did find a couple of shops belonging to silver-smiths. In the centre stood a horologe or water clock and sundial. Around the agora were placed literally hundreds of statues to athletes, politicians, rhetoricians and philosophers, in fact, anyone the city wished to honour. Now only the pedestals remain.

Arkadiane.
The main street, leading from the harbour to the theatre. The colonnade that lines the street was donated by the emperor Arcadius (383-408 AD) and the inscription which tells us this also mentions that the street was lighted at night. To the north of this street is the Roman agora, which unfortunately was built after Paul's time. Only half the length of the street is open to tourists though you will do no harm if you step over the barrier and walk the full length. The unused half is rather overgrown and has very little of interest. The four columns in the middle of the road near the barrier once supported statues of the four evangelists.

Artemesion.
Otherwise known as the Temple of Diana of the Ephesians, which is in a deep hollow on the left of the road from Ephesus to Selcuk. In spring and autumn this becomes a water-logged swamp. Little more than a pillar and some foundations remain. The holy of holies was open to the sky and contained an altar, behind which the statue of Diana stood. (There are several reproductions in the local museum but the lighting is so poor that you will be lucky to get a photograph. Try 200 ASA film.) The objects on the front of the goddess are either breasts or ostrich eggs, in either case symbolising fertility. The original statue is believed to have been carved from a meteorite, which explains the belief that the goddess "fell out of heaven".

Basilica of St John the Theologian.
This is to the north-west of the mosque of Isa Bey on a low hill below the citadel and is supposed to stand over the tomb of St John, which is marked by a fenced off area in the nave. On the lintel between two pillars near the tomb the Greek letters for Theodora, the wife of the Emperor Justinian, can be seen. The tomb was authenticated by the visit of Pope Paul VI.

The baptistry has a large font for baptism by immersion let into the floor. It has been much restored but is quite distinctive and worth several shots, with and without "candidates" posing in it.

There is a somewhat crude and weather-beaten concrete model of Ephesus near this basilica, which is worth careful study, as it will make the often confusing ruins more intelligible to you.

Baths of Skolastika
These stand a little to the south of the Great Theatre along Kouretes Street opposite the Library of Celsus, but were built at the beginning of the second century, so really have no relevance to the Bible story; however everyone wants to see them because they included a brothel section, identified as such by an inscription. Around 400 AD they were rebuilt by Skolastika, a Christian lady, whose headless statue stands in the ante-room. One wonders whether she was a reformer or a madam!

Church of St Mary
The huge ruins at the end of the Arkadiane are the Harbour Baths and Gymnasium. They are very overgrown and confused and probably are not worth a visit. Beside them, but most easily approached by heading towards the coast immediately beside the toilets just inside the lower or northern entry to Ephesus. After about 200 yards of open gounr you will find the Roman basilica 863' x 98' which was probably a ware-house and exchange. After it was abandoned a Christian church was built at the western end while the eastern end was turned into a bishop's palace. A well-preserved fourth century baptistry (again for baptism by immersion) with large crosses on its marble walls was built on the north side of the atrium.

Two famous church councils were held in this building. In 431 AD the two emperors, Theodosius II of the east and Valentinian III of the west called the Third General Council to meet in Ephesus to settle the theological quarrel between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius of Constantinople over whether Mary should be called ”Mother of God” or merely "Mother of Christ". By clever politicking Cyril organised his friends and had Nestorius condemned and deposed. A few days later Nestorius' friends arrived in force and Cyril too was condemned and deposed. Unfortunately Alexandria and Egypt were more important to the empire than even Constantinople, so finally the emperor intervened and Cyril was re-instated and his formula of Theotokos — "God-bearer" — was accepted.

A second general council was held in Ephesus in August, 449 AD, this time to settle the quarrel over the question of how many natures Christ had. On one side were Dioscurus, Cyril's successor in Alexandria, and Eutyches of Constantinople, who claimed that Christ only had a divine nature after the incarnation; on the other was Pope Leo I who wrote his famous Tome stating that Christ had two natures. Dioscurus' real target was supremacy over the Patriarch of Constantinople, which he achieved, but at the cost of alienating Rome. A furious Leo, whose Tome was not even read, denounced the council as a "synod of robbers" and it is still known as the Robber Synod.

Cave or Catacomb of the Seven Sleepers
There was a well-known legend that seven young men fled to this cave to escape the Decian persecution in 250 AD and were sealed in by the emperor's command. Two hundred years later somebody happened to remove the stones and woke the men who returned to the city and promptly expired in the main church to the wonder of all. Early Christians may well have fled here to the many natural caves on the north-eastern slopes of Mt Pion. In the fifth century a church was erected over a catacomb with ten burial chambers. Further catacombs were constructed, including a large mausoleum to a certain Flavius Abradas which was never finished, and pilgrims visited the site down to the 15th century. 2,000 clay lamps have been found in the catacombs plus many graffiti left by pilgrims. A Turk will relieve you of an entrance fee but he is not in uniform and issues no ticket, so it would be interesting — though hardly worthwhile — to challenge his rights in the matter.

Girls' Gymnasium
Situated just inside the Magnesian Gate, at the head of Kouretes Street. The Kouretes were initiates associated with Cybele and lists of their names have been found in this street. Portrait statues of the sophist Flavius Damianus and his wife Vedia Phaedrina were found in this palaestra, which leads some authorities to think that they built it, sometime in the second half of the third century AD. The gymnasium was adorned with numerous female statues, leading excavators to dub it "the Girls' Gymnasium" but there is no real evidence that it was a women-only sports facility.

Great Theatre
Almost certainly this is the one mentioned in Acts in the account of the riot stirred up by Demetrius. It stands on the western slope of Mt Pion and could hold 24,500 spectators, making it the largest in Asia Minor. It was begun by the Greeks, enlarged under Claudius, which is when Paul would have known it, and finally completed by Trajan, well after Paul's time.

Harbour
This is now silted up (which is why Ephesus died) and is marked by a depression in the ground through which the Cayster trickles. Attalos II of Pergamum tried to stop the harbour silting up by constricting the entrance but the mole he built merely collected the silt and made the harbour even shallower.

Library of Celsus
One of the best-preserved buildings in Ephesus (albeit heavily reconstructed), it consisted of a lecture hall and a reading room surrounded by three tiers of alcoves in which the manuscripts were stored. Latin and Greek inscriptions state that it was erected in 110 AD by the Roman consul Aquila in honour of his father, Celsus, who was consul in 92 AD and a Roman governor of Asia. The unopened lead coffin in a marble sarcophagus, visible through two peep-holes in the floor of the main room, presumably still contains the remains of Celsus. The doorways which open off on either side of the main room lead nowhere.

Magnesian Gate
This was the south-eastern entrance into the city and is the only city gate to survive. According to a fragmentary inscription, the gate was completed in the time of Vespasian.

Prison of Paul
A traditional site on the hill Astyages, to the west of the harbour. There is no evidence that Paul was ever imprisoned in Ephesus and the tower was probably something to do with the harbour defences. However a cave chapel on the slope of Mt Koressos was discovered in 1955 which has many graffiti dedicated to Paul, such as "Holy Paul, aid thy servant". It seems to have been a cultic site for early Christians and may be the source of the tradition about Paul's prison. The prison can be clearly seen from the Arkadiane but is so far away, so high up and so dubious that only the most enthusiastic will wish to visit it.

Serapeum
From the south-west corner of the Hellenistic Agora you can get into the Serapeum, a temple dedicated to the Egyptian god Serapis. It was probably erected in the second century AD by Egyptian traders resident in the city. The cult of Serapis was one of the mystery religions that offered a hope of personal immortality to its devotees. The temple was later converted into a church and there is a baptistry in the eastern corner.

House of the Virgin
Otherwise known as the Mariamne, it is supposed to be the home of Mary and John in Ephesus. A Catholic nun, Katharina von Emmerich (1774-1824), who had the stigmata, saw a vision in which it was revealed to her that the holy house was on a mountain three hours travel south of Ephesus, from which the city, the sea and the islands could be seen. She further claimed that the tomb of the Virgin was about a mile from the house — this despite a firm Catholic belief (and church) that Mary died and was buried in Jerusalem (or, alternatively, that she died and her body was taken up into heaven). The site was visited in 1891 by Monsieur Poulin, the superior of a monastery in Smyrna, who identified the house as a ruin called Panaya Kapulü some 5 miles south of Ephesus. Despite excavations, which revealed first century ruins beneath the house, the tomb has not been identified, but Pope Paul VI authenticated the site by visiting it in 1967.

As the crow flies the site is probably only about a mile or two south of Ephesus but it is well above the city. There are marvellous views out over the Ægean from the road, as well as views of the city wall climbing up the ridge of Mt Koressos.

Other sites
Other sites and objects to look out for include, an altar dedicated to the Unknown God, and the base of a statue of Artemis which was destroyed in the fifth century and a cross put in its place. The inscription reads ”Demeas has removed the deceitful image of the demon Artemis and in it place put this sign, which drives away the idols, to the praise of God and of the cross, the victorious, imperishable symbol of Christ." These are probably all in the Museum of Inscriptions which was closed for restoration when I was last there.

On the arch beside the Library of Celsus is a dedicatory inscription to Augustus by two of Agrippa's freedmen, calling the emperor pontifex maximus.

Recently opened after many years of closure are the Villas on the Slope, a series of sumptuous houses with beautiful frescoes on the walls. A substantial additional fee is charged for entry to this area of the ruins.

The Temple of Domitian, of which only the vaulted sub-structure remains, was the first in Ephesus erected for the cult of an emperor. The Prytaneion, where the governing magistrates, the prytanes, met, also contains the sanctuary of Hestia Boulaia, where a sacred flame burned constantly. Three statues of Artemis were found here, which are now in the Ephesus and Izmir museums.

According to the apocryphal Acts of Timothy Paul's companion was martyred in the Embolos for protesting against the pagan festival of Katagogia. Inscriptions found in Ephesus confirm the existence of a festival known as "the day of the Katagogiae" and refer to a quarter of the city known as the Embolos. Timothy's grave and martyrium, however, which should be on Mt Pion, perhaps in the vicinity of the Cave of the Seven Sleepers, has not been found.

If you have the opportunity, the Kunst Historisches Museum in Vienna has a special "Ephesus Museum" which has numerous reliefs taken from the ruins and a marvellous model of the whole city.

Smyrna

Since the Turkish take-over in 1922, when thousands of Greeks were massacred by Ataturk's troops and the rest expelled, Smyrna has been known as Izmir. The original Smyrna, a Greek city, lay on the north-east edge of the gulf some four miles from Izmir and was destroyed by the Lydians in the 6th century BC. Its ruins do not interest us at all except that it was one of several cities which claimed to be the birthplace of Homer and there was a stoa called the Homereion where the deified poet was worshipped.

The city mentioned in Revelation is on the south-east edge of the gulf, about 42 miles north of Ephesus. According to Pausanias, Smyrna was founded by Alexander the Great as a result of a dream but the real development of the site was due to Lysimachus, who laid out the city in a rectangular grid so that the streets were open to the sunshine and the sea breezes from the harbour.

The city grew prosperous as the port for a rich and fertile hinterland along the Meles River, famous not only for agriculture but also for mines of iron, lead, copper and precious metals. In addition the city boasted warm medicinal springs which were supposed to be efficacious for arthritis and intestinal troubles.

Smyrna was damaged by the earthquake of 178 AD and Marcus Aurelius assisted in the rebuilding. The city prospered through Byzantine times and Turkish times, mainly due to the energy of its Greek population. Even after the population was massacred by Timurlane, who built a tower of human heads, the city was restored and continued to prosper. By the end of the first world war it was the second largest city in Turkey with a Greek population of 250,000.

Unfortunately the Greeks tried to conquer Turkey but were defeated by Ataturk and driven back on Smyrna. In the fighting which followed, the city was burned and tens of thousands massacred with great cruelty, thousands more being expelled after the Turkish victory. Many more would have been killed had it not been for the actions of an American newspaper reporter who took charge of an allied fleet and organised a dramatic evacuation of the civilian population.

Owing to its continuous occupation archæological excavation is very difficult in Smyrna and in any case would reveal very little of the city of Paul's time, due to the rebuilding in 178 AD. Objects and sites of interest include the following:

Agora
This is the main area excavated by the Turkish Historical Association. Unfortunately virtually everything in the agora dates from the reconstruction under Marcus Aurelius and was not here in the days of SS. Paul or John. The agora was famous (like the Chester Rows) for being on three stories, one below ground and two above. The ground floor and the underground shops are fairly well preserved, but virtually nothing remains of the second story. Various sculptures have been found, including marble statues of Poseidon, god of the sea (and earthquakes) and Demeter, goddess of agriculture.

Aqueducts
These do date from the time of John, when they supplied a population of perhaps 200,000.

Inner harbour
The inner harbour, which is where ships went to unload or load, had a narrow entrance that could be blocked by a chain. It is now silted up and the main bazaar has been built on the site.

Outer harbour
This is really just a portion of the Gulf of Smyrna and although picturesque you cannot expect any great historical remains. Old Smyrna stood on a small peninsula east of the suburb of Bayrakli, north of Izmir, where excavations have been conducted on the tel.

Walls
A few remains of the walls built by Lysimachus can be seen. The visible remains on the acropolis on Mt Pagos, however, are almost entirely Byzantine, built on Roman or Greek foundations.

Other sites
Also look for the theatre, which may be the site of the martyrdom of Polycarp in 155 AD and, a century later, Pionius. Others point to the stadium as the site of these events. The theatre can be seen from the acropolis, but I have not had time to visit it on the ground.

Pergamon

The original city, some 65 miles north of Smyrna and 15 miles from the sea, stood on the summit of the hill overlooking the Caicus River, 1165' above sea level. Lysimachus put his war chest of 9,000 talents of gold here with a trusted general, Philetaerus as commander of the garrison. When Lysimachus died in 282 BC Philetaerus rebelled against Lysimachus' heir, stole the money and founded a successful dynasty which lasted until 133 BC when Attalos III bequeathed the kingdom to the Romans.

Philetaerus' grandnephew, Attalos I, fought against the Gauls (later Galatians) and defeated them. In the course of this war he gained much territory and Pergamum became the chief power in Asia Minor, making it one of the four divisions of Alexander's empire in place of Lysimachus' transitory state.

Eumenes II, great-grandnephew of Philetaerus, was a great builder, responsible for the altar to Zeus and the famous library of Pergamum. Some have claimed that this altar, a huge construction 125' x 115' and 30' high, is the "Satan's seat" mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

In Roman times the hill became the acropolis and the city was at the foot of the hill. In Byzantine times the city was back on the acropolis, but today the acropolis is once more deserted and the modern city of Bergama covers much of the Roman remains.

Nothing much is known about the early Christian church in Pergamum, though Revelation mentions "Antipas, My faithful martyr". In Byzantine times an Egyptian temple in the lower town was converted into a church and dedicated to St John the Apostle.

Archaeological work began in Pergamum when Carl Humann, chief road engineer for the western Ottoman empire, established his headquarters in Bergama in 1868. In his spare time he began digging in the ruins and quickly located the altar of Zeus, with nearly 400' of reliefs telling the story of Telephus, son of Hercules. (Others regard the reliefs as commemorating the victory over the Gauls.) Humann managed to smuggle these reliefs and various other parts of the altar back to Germany where they can now be seen in the Pergamon museum.

The Germans have continued to dig at Bergama and by now over 60% of the ancient city has been excavated, but a lot was destroyed by vandalism during the second world war — presumably people getting stone for building. Visible remains include the following:

Agora
At the foot of the acropolis is the lower agora surrounded by Doric shop porticoes. Slightly higher is the gymnasium complex on three terraces. Higher still, in the middle of the slope, is the upper agora, above and to the left of which was the Altar of Zeus. Hereabouts you will find a simple granite slab inscribed with the name "Humann". Presumably the engineer lies underneath.

Altar of Zeus
This was destroyed in antiquity and its sculptured panels built into the Byzantine city walls, where they were identified by Humann and secretly removed. The site of the altar is on the southern slope of the acropolis hill, a short distance below the temple of Athena and consists of the rough stone core, which is overgrown by trees.

Aqueduct
One of the most formidable technical works of antiquity, it carried water under pressure through four miles of stone pipes across the plain and up to the acropolis. This aqueduct was built by Eumenes II, who also built the Altar of Zeus.

Asklepion
The temple to the god Asklepios was situated on a small plateau above the lower town. It is approached by a colonnaded road running west from the theatre. Most of the visible structures date from the second century AD, when the shrine achieved its greatest fame, but there was an Asklepion here in John's day. This place, where miracles were believed to occur regularly, is much more likely to be the "Satan's Seat" referred to in Revelation.

If you enter through the propylon on the east the circular Temple of Asklepios is to the left. On the right is the library of Flavia Melitene inside which was found a colossal statue of Hadrian in the nude (now in the Bergama museum - which is well worth a visit).

The central area of the sanctuary consists of a large dormitory where patients slept for several nights until the priests judged that they were ready — supposedly purified but probably made psychologically susceptible. See Robin Lane Fox's excellent Pagans and Christians for a description of how such places worked. There were also pools for bathing and mud baths, which were all part of the treatment. The spring which still flows in the centre of the Asklepion is radioactive, so don't fill up your water bottles at it!

On the auspicious day the patients were taken down through a tunnel to the south-east corner of the sacred precinct. A two-storey circular building houses six apses with mosaic walls and floors on the ground storey where the patients spent the night. As they slept the god appeared to them (priests dressed up?) and prescribed their cure — medicine, pilgrimage, etc.

Galen (130-200 AD) was one of the greatest doctors here, so it wasn't all mumbo jumbo. When they left the sanctuary, patients paid their offerings into the Temple of Asklepios. Look for the pillar on which two snakes have been carved. This symbol of the god later became the cadeucus of the medical profession.

Red Courtyard
Known locally as Kizil Avlu, this is a large complex of brick buildings, built in Hadrian's time and originally faced with marble. The central structure is a basilica faced by a large courtyard beneath which the Selinus River flows through two tunnels. In here were found the remains of large composite statues (one side male, the other female) with Egyptian features, suggesting that this was another Serapeum. In the Byzantine period the central basilica was converted into a church and dedicated to St John.

Temple of Athena and Library
Climb the western side of the acropolis from the site of the Altar of Zeus. The temple is surrounded on three sides by the two story library, which was the second largest in the ancient world, with 200,000 scrolls. Ptolemy V of Egypt was so jealous of it that he placed an embargo on the export of papyrus, which led the book makers of Pergamum to invent a way of using animal skins. This new writing material became known as pergamenus or parchment. Unfortunately in John's day the library was nearly empty, as Antony gave it all to Cleopatra and the books were taken to Alexandria where they were eventually destroyed during the Arab recapture of the city in 646 AD. Legend states that the arab soldiers asked their commander, Amr ibn al Aasi, what they should do with these infidel writings. He is supposed to have replied: "If they merely repeat what is in the Quran they are superfluous; if what they contain is not in the Quran they are blasphemous. In either case, burn them." Other studies suggest that in fact the bulk of the library was destroyed in Christian riots.

Hellenistic Theatre
This is on the western slope of the acropolis hill and next door to the Temple of Athena. It held an audience of 15,000 and the spectators in the back row were 118' above the stage. Performances were prefaced by a procession to the temple of Dionysius, which passed along the road at the bottom of the theatre. As soon as the procession had passed, slaves hurriedly erected a wooden stage, whose uprights were held in the stone sockets still visible in the road.

Other sites
Also look out for the arsenal and the five palaces on the acropolis, four other theatres, a stadium and an amphitheatre, which all date from Roman times. In the course of excavations at a temple of Demeter or Ceres, an altar was found with an inscription dedicating it "To Unknown Gods".

Thyatira

Nothing much is known of the history of Thyatira. It seems to have been founded by the Lydians but by the third century BC it had fallen into decay and was re-founded by Seleucus Nicator as a Greek city. It was never very large or wealthy and was not involved in any wars or revolts. The modern town of Akhisar — "White Castle" — named after the medieval castle on the outskirts of town, occupies the site.

In Lydian times Thyatira seems to have been a holy city dedicated to the god Tyrimnaios, who is depicted as a horseman. Coins and inscriptions from Roman times indicate that he was Hellenized and known as Helios Tyrimnaios Pythios Apollo. Literary evidence indicates that there was also an oracle of the god Sambathe in the town and some have seen St John's mention of "Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess" as a reference to this oracle.

More likely this refers to a native tendency towards the charismatic. Epiphanius claims that in the third century AD the whole town and surrounding area was involved in the Montanist heresy, which involved a good deal of "prophesying" and ecstatic speech.

There have been no excavations in Thyatira but the locals, diggings for their own purposes, have found many objects, including a number of inscriptions. There is a local open-air museum of sorts: one of its treasures is the rather damaged Ionic capital of a Roman basilica that was converted into a church.

Sardis

Sardis is the most important city in the valley of the Hermus River and stands 35 miles south of Thyatira and some 58 miles from Ephesus and the sea. A sharp peak in the Tmolus Range, about 800' above the surrounding land, formed the acropolis of the original city, which was settled by the Lydians as early as 1,200 BC, though Herodotus claims that the first settlement was by Greek warriors, the "sons of Herakles", in 1185 BC.

In 680 BC Gyges, a king mentioned in Assyrian records, captured Sardis and founded his own dynasty, whose most famous ruler was Croesus. When Cyrus captured Sardis in 546 BC the city became the capital of a satrapy called Sfarda. This name, in its Hebrew form of Sepharad, is preserved in the name of the Sephardic or eastern Jews.

The turbulent history of Sardis really begins in 500 BC when the Ionians rebelled against the Persians and burned the lower city. Darius was so angry that he ordered his servants to remind him every morning of the destruction of Sardis. The Persian invasions of Greece stemmed directly from this act. Sardis also played a part in the rebellion of Cyrus the Younger, whose bid for the Persian throne was assisted by Xenophon and his 10,000 Greek mercenaries.

The city was captured by Alexander, twelve years later by Antigonus and in 218 BC by Antiochus the Great. An earthquake in 17 BC destroyed much of the city but rebuilding was helped by an imperial tax exemption for five years and other financial help from both Tiberius, who gave ten million sesterces towards the rebuilding, and Claudius.

In the second century AD Bishop Melito of Sardis was an influential leader of the Christian church and an early pilgrim to Palestine. The city retained its importance into Byzantine times, when Sardis was the seat of a Metropolitan Archbishop, sixth in dignity after the Patriarch of Constantinople. Most of the city was destroyed by the Persian raid in 615 AD and the final destruction took place under Timurlane in 1402 AD, when the Mongol built one of his famous towers of the skulls of the defenders, after which the city was not rebuilt.

The Salihli highway, which runs from Ankara to Izmir, runs along the Pactolus River through the middle of the lower city, in fact, the main street is underneath the modern road. The nearby railway station preserves the ancient name of Sardis as Sart. The American Society for the Excavation of Sardis (now defunct) began excavating here in 1910 and further excavations are continuing. Visible remains include the following:

Acropolis
This upper city was surrounded by a triple wall which, in addition to its natural strength, led Croesus to regard the fortress as impregnable. Twice, however, it was captured by soldiers from the besieging army climbing the cliffs and scaling the walls. Visible remains are mainly Byzantine, though the Lydian and Hellenistic foundations can be seen to the north. Erosion of the soft rock of the hill has drastically altered the shape of the acropolis since ancient times. It is a long and difficult scramble to get up there and the remains do not justify the effort.

Christian church
A small brick building with a round apse with external arches was built at the south-east corner of the Temple of Artemis. It was in use by the middle of the fourth century AD and continued to be used until the Persian raid. It is a very valuable example of an early Christian church, for the architecture indicates the type of service in use at the time.

Gymnasium
Inscriptions found in this building, just to the north of the Salihli Highway, date the central unit to 166 AD. The ornate classical eastern facade of columned arcades and arches was put up in 211 AD. The building, which has a palaestra or exercise ground on the east and large baths on the west, has been heavily restored by the excavators and is quite photogenic.

Lydian tombs
There are huge burial mounds of the Lydian period at Bin Tepe (Thousand Hills) about 4 miles north of Sardis on the other side of the Hermus River. If you approach Sardis from the north, you will pass right by these mounds. Three mounds at the eastern end of this cemetery, larger than all the rest, are believed to mark royal burials, one of Gyges and another of Alyattes, his grandson.

Synagogue
Just north of the Salihli Highway (east of the Pactolus River), was the synagogue, an important building in the town, with marble slabs and pillars, a large mosaic floor (disrupted by later additions to the building) and many inscriptions and Jewish symbols, including a marble menorah. Notice the worn thresholds to the doors, indicating heavy use. The Jewish community has been estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000.

The synagogue was built early in the third century AD, remodelled in the fourth century, continued in use through the fifth but showed signs of neglect in the sixth. Like everything else, it was destroyed in the Persian raid. The building is flanked by Byzantine shops along the south wall, including several whose owners can be identified as Jews.

Temple of Artemis or Diana
The first part of the ancient city to be excavated, the temple was built in three phases between 300 BC and 150 AD. It is dedicated to Artemis, who was identified with the local goddess Cybele, the Asian earth-mother, whose devotees castrated themselves. When found it was buried 50' deep with only the tops of two columns protruding from the soil.

Other sites
Also look out for the more than 1,000 graves excavated at various times, many of them south of the Salihli Highway. They come from all periods, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine, indicating continuous occupation. On the way to the temple of Artemis you will pass an area of ruins on your right which have been identified as workshops connected with smelting gold. The Pactolus River was rich in gold dust, the source of Sardis' wealth, and it would appear that these workshops are where the gold dust was smelted into ingots or fashioned into jewellery.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia, 75 miles east of Smyrna, was founded about 150 BC by Attalos II of Pergamum and named "Brotherly Love" out of respect for his brother and predecessor on the throne, Eumenes II. The city is in the valley of the Cogamus River, a tributary of the Hermus, on a terrace on the easternmost slopes of the Mt Tmolus Range, 650' above sea level. The modern name, Alashehir, means "The Red City", a reference to the volcanic soil on which the city is built.

The city was damaged in the earthquake of 17 AD and received imperial assistance in rebuilding. Because of its magnificent temples and public buildings the city was known in ancient times as "Little Athens".

Under the Byzantines Philadelphia became the seat of a bishop and in the 13th century it was upgraded to an archbishopric. The citizens of Philadelphia twice defeated Seljuk sieges, in 1306 and 1324, finally yielding after long resistance in 1390. This final siege fatally weakened the city so that twelve years later it fell an easy prey to Timurlane, who built a wall of the corpses of the defenders. The spot where this gruesome wall stood is still pointed out by the locals.

Despite this catastrophe the city was rebuilt and remained largely Christian until after the first world war when the Young Turks deported the whole population to Syria, where they were driven, with great cruelty, out into the desert to die. At this time the (mainly Armenian) Christian population of Turkey was virtually exterminated, a nasty bit of genocide which the modern Turkish government is at pains to deny.

Armenian activists are still seeking an apology (and perhaps compensation) for the genocide and the Turkish response is to deny that there ever were any Armenians in Turkey or to claim that those who were here left voluntarily. Tourists overheard talking about the Armenians risk several unpleasant hours with the local police and locals who refer to them get substantial gaol sentences. I am told that the Encyclopaedia Britannica is banned in Turkey because it refers to the once mighty Armenian Kingdom in the north-east of Turkey, whose existence is a matter of historical fact!

There has been no archaeological work in Alasehir, the modern town which covers the site of old Philadelphia. The only remains visible are the following:

Cathedral
The ruined buttresses and walls of the Armenian cathedral are next to the mosque in the centre of town. There are traces of eleventh-century frescoes but the building itself may be much older if the brickwork is anything to go by.

Walls
The Byzantine walls extend for more than 3,600' on the north of the city, but they have been badly damaged by stone hunters and are almost invisible behind modern houses and luxuriant weeds apart from one stretch which may have included one of the city gates, if the gap in the wall is any guide.

Other sites
To the south of the city three small hills mark the site of the acropolis, on the side of which the outline of a theatre can be distinguished. A few other overgrown ruins are visible but in the absence of any archaeological excavation they are unidentifiable. You can drive up onto the hill above the city and see the few ruins that have been uncovered, but there are no signs to identify them.

Laodicea

Laodicea ad Lycum — it stands on the Lycus River, a tributary of the Meander, about 100 miles east of Ephesus — was founded about 261 BC by Antiochus II of Syria and named in honour of his wife Laodice, (whom he later divorced to marry Berenice of Egypt. Laodice, however, got her revenge by poisoning him and murdering Berenice). It quickly fell to Pergamum, under whose control it remained until the Roman take-over.

The surrounding countryside was famous for its black sheep, whose wool, turned into carpets and garments, was the basis of the city's prosperity. It became a successful banking centre and as early as the second century AD Laodicea minted its own coins. When Nero offered help towards rebuilding the city after it was destroyed by an earthquake in 60 AD the town council proudly refused on the grounds that they were well able to rebuild their own city.

Christianity began early in Laodicea, probably under the ministry of St Paul or his direct associates and by the second century it was the seat of a bishop. A number of martyrs, including Sagaris, one of the bishops, are recorded from the city. In the fourth century Laodicea was the scene of an important church council.

Laodicea fell to the Seljuks in the eleventh century, only to be recaptured by the Crusaders in 1119 AD. When the Crusader kingdoms fell before a renewed Turkish onslaught Laodicea was destroyed and never rebuilt. Instead the Turks founded a new city called Denizli four miles to the south beside a spring of water. Laodicea was used as a convenient quarry and today its remains are known as Eski Hissar. Visible remains include the following:

Aqueduct
Water was supplied to the Nymphæum and a water tower on the south side of the city by a four-mile long aqueduct from the springs at Denizli. Over level ground the aqueduct takes the form of the conventional channel carried on arches but stone pipes carried the water over slopes in a sort of syphon. These pipes are badly "furred" by mineral deposits similar to those from the hot springs of Pummukale.

Nymphæum
Near the centre of the ancient city stood the water fountain dedicated to the nymphs, consisting of a square water basin with colonnades and fountains on either side. A life-size statue of Isis was found in the ruins. In Byzantine times the water basin was walled off and steps were installed. Crosses carved into the walls show that it had a Christian use, probably it became the town baptistry.

Stadium
The stadium stands on the opposite end of the plateau from the theatres. An inscription records that it was dedicated to Vespasian in 79 AD. Nearby is a badly weathered ruin which may be a gymnasium or baths, dating from the time of Hadrian

Theatres
There are two theatres built into the side of the small plateau on which Laodicea stands. The larger, a Greek theatre, faces across the Lycus valley to the northeast and is visible from the dirt track which runs over the tel. The smaller Roman theatre faces northwest and is reached by climbing to the top of the Greek theatre and then walking away along the edge of the tel.

Walls
The site of Laodicea has not been excavated, but the line of the city walls can be traced. The eastern gate was dedicated to Vespasian, so it would have been there in the days of St John.

There are several sites of interest in the surrounding area, visible from the ruins of Laodicea. These include:

Pummukale
A popular tourist spot, visible as a white patch on the hills opposite Laodiscea, but its connections with John are very tenuous and based on nothing more than the "hot" mentioned in the message to Laodicea. The huge stalactites are most impressive, but mindless tourists get in the way of every picture (unless you get there early) and are trampling the delicate mineral formations into oblivion.

Hierapolis
The site of this city, founded by Eumenes II in 190 BC, is 6 miles north-east of Laodicea and can be clearly seen from it, marked by the white cliffs of Pummukale. The name — meaning "priest city" or "holy city" — came from the healing qualities associated with the warm, mineral-rich springs. The chief deity of the city was the Syrian goddess Atargatis.

Visible remains include large, second century AD baths, a temple of Apollo and, to the south-east of the temple, a Plutoneion, a shrine to the god of the underworld. Ancient writers mention a cave which produced fatal vapours; a foul-smelling chamber can still be seen beneath the temple marked by large warning signs of skull and cross-bones. Also near the temple is a fourth century nymphaeum and a sixth century Christian basilica.

The main street of the city consists of a mile-long colonnade. Lining the street outside the city to the north is an extensive necropolis with tumuli, sarcophagi and house-shaped tombs. A second necropolis to the east of the city contains a large building with an octagonal chamber in the centre dating from the fifth century AD. It is identified as the martyrium of Phillip, popularly supposed to be the apostle but more likely the deacon who, according to Eusebius, was buried here. Little more than the eight piers supporting the walls and roof remain.

Colossae
This city was on the ancient trade route from Ephesus to Syria and both Herodotus and Xenophon refer to it as a large and wealthy city. Its major export was wool with a violet hue, called colissinus which was prized for its colour. In St Paul's day the population of the city was mainly Phrygian, with Greeks and Jews forming significant minorities. Colossae fell into decay when the trade route ceased to be important, possibly because of the silting up of the harbour at Ephesus.

The site of ancient Colossae is near the village of Honaz, 12 miles south-east of Laodicea. It has not been excavated, but the outline of a large theatre is clearly visible in the ground, as is the site of the necropolis. Follow the main road out of Denizli and keep going until you see the battered brown sign for Kolossi pointing off to the right. The tel is on the right of the lane as you go up the hill.