160th year of excavations at the ancient city of Sardis

In Sardis, the capital of the Lydian Kingdom located in the Sart neighborhood of Salihli district in Manisa, known as the place where the first coins were minted under state guarantee, the excavation work that began 160 years ago continues. In this year's excavations, the goal is to make the 2,700-year-old monumental fortification wall, discovered approximately 50 years ago but previously unexcavated due to its mudbrick structure, accessible to tourism.

The excavation work in Sardis, the capital of the Lydian Kingdom located in the Sart neighborhood of Salihli district, known as the place where the first gold and silver coins were minted under state guarantee, continues after 160 years. The ancient city, which has been the site of various settlements for over 5,000 years and hosted numerous civilizations, has revealed many structures and artifacts from the Lydian, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and other cultures during the excavations.

In this year's ongoing excavations at the ancient city, the aim is to fully uncover the monumental fortification wall, which was discovered 50 years ago but has not been excavated until now due to its mudbrick structure.

Excavation Director Prof. Dr. Nicholas Cahill stated that the 20-meter wide, 14-meter high monumental fortification wall, which is unparalleled in the Mediterranean and Anatolian regions, is expected to be opened to tourism starting next year.

In a statement to reporters, Cahill said, "In this area, an monumental fortification wall from the Lydian period was discovered in the 1970s. It is a wall mainly constructed of mudbrick. Because it was made of mudbrick, it was very difficult to protect it from rain and external elements at that time. Excavations have been carried out in the area where the fortification wall is located for nearly 50 years. To fully uncover the wall, a roof was built over this area. With this roof in place, we accelerated our efforts to fully expose the fortification wall. In these efforts, both the wall and houses from the Roman period built on top of this wall were uncovered. This fortification wall is very significant because there is no other wall like this in the Mediterranean and Anatolia. It is 20 meters wide and in some sections reaches up to 14 meters high. For example, the width of the fortification walls in other ancient cities is about 3-4 meters. The wall uncovered in this area is a much larger monumental structure. In the 6th and 7th centuries BCE, such large monumental walls existed only in Mesopotamia in the Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations. We believe that the Lydians looked both to the West and the East, aiming to become one of the greatest empires of that time. To realize this vision, they built such monumental walls. We think that this wall was constructed by the Lydians as a message that ‘we are as powerful as the Mesopotamians.’ Starting from the coming years, we aim to open this unparalleled fortification wall in the Mediterranean and Anatolia to tourism."