Day 12: Thyatira (Akhisar), Pergamum (Bergama) & Smyrna (Izmir)

Today we visited 3 more of the 7 churches of Revelation, and saw lots of Roman ruins!

This morning, we started out by heading to the ancient city of Thyatira. There is little to see of the ancient city as the current-day city of Akhisar rests on the exact site, and so little excavation can be done, but there is a square of land in the center of the city with some ruins on it we were able to see, and anytime something is found in the city, it is brought there to display. Thyatira was founded by the Lydians and eventually passed to the hands of one of Alexander the Great’s generals in the 3rd century BC, to the king of Pergamum in 190 BC, and then on to the Romans in 133 BC. Thyatira was well known for it’s trade and manufacturing guilds, but membership in these guilds had a price - to belong, one usually had to participate in immoral religious practices, which was a problem for early Christians. Thyatira was cautioned in Revelation not to tolerate the immoral or idolatrous teachings. The main set of ruins visible in Akhisar today is a basilica from the 5th century AD, which was not in fact a church, but simply a public building, used for state gatherings. Though the space was small, we had fun wandering around the buildings, and playing with a group of turtles that was also wandering around the grounds. They were so cute!

Our next stop of the day was the ancient city of Pergamum, which today is home to the city of Bergama. Pergamum was originally settled by Greeks in the 8th century BC, was ruled for a time by one of Alexander the Great’s generals, who brought most of Alexander’s wealth to the city, and was the capital of the Pergamene empire until passing to Roman control in 133 BC. The city was a great center of learning, and had the second largest library in the world at one point, until Marc Antony took many of its 200,000 scrolls to Alexandria as part of his wedding gift to Cleopatra in 41 BC. In Revelation, Pergamum is commendated for holding fast to Christ, despite living where “Satan has his throne”, but were warned not to compromise their faith. The first place we visited in Pergamum was the Red Hall, which is nestled at the base of the hill in the modern city of Bergama, which to this day covers most of the courtyard’s ruins. You can still see, however, the large red brick temple that was built in the 2nd century AD and originally dedicated to the Egyptian god Isis, and was later converted into a church in the 4th century AD. Passages and cisterns run beneath the building, but it is unfortunately closed to public, so we couldn’t climb through them. It was too bad, because that would have fit in with our tunnels and cisterns theme this trip! Flanking the Red Hall on either side are large round towers with circular skylights to let in the sun. The resulting sunbeam seems like it is coming directly from heaven.

After grabbing some lunch, we headed up to the Acropolis of Pergamum, which sits perched on a hillside above Bergama. The ruins of the acropolis are more than impressive - it seems every corner we turned, there was more to see. We walked past the ruins of the great library, and stopped in front of the massive columns of the Temple or Trajan, built in 125 AD. From there, we climbed down and walked through the long corridor of arches built to hold up temple courtyard. One of the most fantastic sights was the theater, which was built in the 3rd century BC and has a capacity of 10,000. Aftering climbing down all 80 rows of seats, we wound around the hill and climbed back up past the site of the Temple of Zeus. This temple, which is thought to be the throne of Satan referred to in Revelation, was excavated in the 1870s and moved to a specialty museum in Berlin, who had funded the project. The whole time while walking around the site, we had a spectacular view of the surrounding city and region.

Our last stop of the day was back in Smyrna, or modern day Izmir. The city’s origins date back to 3000 BC, and has always been an important port city on the Aegean Sea. The Lydians conquered the city in 600 BC and it fell into decline until the Roman period in the 1st century BC. Smyrna was mentioned in Revelation as the church that was poor and persecuted, but was rich in spirit. The most significant remains in the city are those of the Agora, or central market, of the Roman city, which date to about the 2nd century AD. This particular Agora was surrounded by a basilica that housed government buildings such as a courthouse. This site is currently still under excavation - currently, you can see the columns of the Agora, was well as the arches that supported the second level of the basilica that was built up so they could place the agora on a hillside. Across the courtyard, pieces of arches and columns are numbered and sorted so that eventually, more of the site can be reconstructed. It is fascinating to be on an active archaeological site, because you know anytime you come back, more progess will have been made!

After our day of site seeing, some of the group walked the short way to see waterfront to see the Aegean Sea. Along the way, we also found a real Starbucks, which was a fun treat from home, as it feels just like any other Starbucks inside, other than the girl at the register being slightly confused by Bernita’s complicated coffee order. After some coffee and a stroll along the waterfront, we grabbed some pizza at Domino’s, and then watched the sunset on the Aegean before heading back to the hotel. A great end to a fun day!

Tomorrow promises to be a long day as we travel down to Ephesus and then back to Izmir for our flight back to Istanbul. It’s hard to believe our trip is soon coming to an end, and we hope you stick with us as we finish out our last few days. God bless!

Categories: Holy Land.