Manisa

This is the city of another of the churches mentioned in Revelation. Sardes was also the capital of Lydia up until the Persian invasion.
The 1st picture is a wall between the gymnasium (which is the foreground) and the baths behind. It is a restoration, but spectacular. If you look closely, I'm standing in the center arch. The scale is nothing short of monumental. 2nd is a closer look at the columns. I'll leave the inscriptons to the Greek scholars among you to decipher. 3rd is the first room of the bath, the tepidarium, right behind the monumental wall. 4th looks at one of the streets and shops.
The last 2 are significant. This is an ancient synagogue, said to be the largest in Asia Minor and the 3rd largest in the world at the time. It is immediately left of the bath/gymnasium in the first picture. One thing I noticed is that the front of this sanctuary is architecturally the same as the apses in the early churches. I guess that doesn't surprise me as Christianity began as a movement within Judaism. The last picture looks from the forecourt over the fountain and basin used for ritual cleansing before entering the synagogue and then on into the sanctuary. NB. The mosaics on the floor are originalRead more