Visiting the Sardis Site

New Publications:
The Hellenistic Pottery from Sardis: The Finds through 1994 by Susan I. Rotroff and Andrew Oliver, Jr.

The City of Sardis: Approaches in Graphic Recording by Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr., Nicholas D. Cahill, Philip T. Stinson, and Fikret K. Yegül.

Sardis is featured in
Harvard Magazine
March-April 1998 issue.

Visiting the Sardis Expedition Site
The site of Sardis (modern Sart) lies some 60 miles east of Izmir, along the Izmir-Ankara highway. The bath-gymnasium complex, synagogue, and Byzantine shops are located just north of the highway and remain open to visitors year-round. By law, all of the artifacts found by the Harvard-Cornell Expedition remain in Turkey. Over 11,000 objects have been inventoried since 1958. Some of these are stored in depots at the site but the more important are in the Archaeological Museum of Manisa, some 35 miles to the northwest. The displays there include Late Roman mosaics, sculpture, a helmet from the mid-6th century B.C., and pottery from various periods, including drinking vessels of the Lydian period.

Burial mounds in the Lydian royal cemetery at Bin Tepe: view across the Hermus river plain, towards Sardis and the Tmolus mountain range.
© Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/Harvard University 1996

A portion of the site currently being excavated (sectors MMS, MMS/N, and MMS/S) is visible just east of the bath-gymnasium complex, on either side of the highway. Here may be viewed remains of the Lydian city defenses and domestic/industrial unit, as well as Late Roman townhouses preserving painted wall decoration. Between mid-August and late May, when excavation and study are not taking place, much of the area is covered by protective roofing and consequently inaccessible. Construction of a permanent shelter, with viewing platforms, is now underway.

The Lydian gold refining installation and the remains of Churches E and EA lie along a road leading south from the highway to the temple of Artemis. Visitors interested in the Lydian terracotta reconstruction may view it from outside the south wall of the Expedition compound (just north of the Artemis temple).

The royal burial mounds at Bin Tepe are scattered over the Hermus River plain, some 6 miles to the northwest. There is no access to the interior of these mounds.