Sardis: One of the Most Powerful Cities of the Ancient World

Watch the sixth episode of the series, The Quest for Answers: Looking for the First Followers of Christ in Turkey. In this sixth show, we visit the city of Sart, the ancient Sardis.

Sardis is the fifth city that received one of the 7 messages to the churches described in Revelation. Founded about 1200 B.C., Sardis was one of the oldest cities in Asia Minor. In the sixth century, BC Sardis was one of the most powerful cities of the ancient world. Yet by the Roman period, it had declined to the point that the archaeologist Sir William Ramsay could describe it as “a relic of the period of barbaric warfare, which lived rather on its ancient prestige than on its suitability to present conditions.”