Where is ancient laodicea

Because of the extensive archaeological and reconstruction work, Laodicea changes dramatically every year as newly discovered or rebuilt structures are open to visitors. The latest addition to this set has been the Laodicean Church, discovered in The main sightseeing route leads in a northwesterly direction along Syria Street.

Two theatres are located on the north side of the site, and the stadium and the bouleuterion - on the southern side. The city was surrounded by defensive walls, and some parts of them are clearly visible. Outside the walls, on each side of the city, there were necropoles. The sightseeing tour of Laodicea begins at the entrance, located on the eastern side, near the East Baths. This building stood on the north side of Syria Street. It was built in the 2nd century CE. The building has a central layout.

The flat area extending to the west of the structure may have been a commercial agora. East Byzantine Gate leads the visitors to the centre of Laodicea. It was part of the new defensive walls, which surrounded the city much reduced in size in comparison to the previous period of prosperity. Just outside the gate, on the north side of the road, researchers have discovered so-called Room with Pithos. It was probably the centre of wine production.

On the north side of the gate, there are the remains of the East Byzantine Nymphaeum. This impressive fountain was erected on a rectangular plan with dimensions of Its construction dates back to the 5th century CE, and bricks and stones obtained from the riverbed were used as the building materials. The main water tank, sealed with mortar, had a depth of 2. This fountain supplied drinking water to people living outside the city walls and to the travellers arriving at Laodicea from the east.

Syria Street , lined with marble slabs, next leads visitors to Temple A , built in the 2nd century CE. This temple underwent renovation during the reign of Emperor Diocletian at the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 4th century.

In the 4th century, this building served as an archive. It was destroyed by an earthquake in Currently, it has now been partially restored, and the glass floor allows looking more closely at beautifully carved columns and the foundations that support the temple. On the northern side of the temple, there is a newly restored church, called the Laodicean Church.

It is now the main tourist attraction of Laodicea. The building was discovered and completely unearthed in This is one of the oldest Christian churches in the world. Its construction dates back to the reign of Constantine the Great, that is, to the first half of the 4th century CE. The building was severely damaged by an earthquake in but was later rebuilt.

It was finally destroyed by the earthquake that struck Laodicea during the reign of Emperor Phocas that is in the years Today, the building has been covered with a protective roof, and a partly transparent platform has been prepared for the visitors. The building has an innovative plan because it has eleven semicircular apses and two entrances. The interior is a three-aisled basilica, where the floor is decorated with numerous mosaics.

They provide information about the names of two deacons - Polycarp and Alexander. The church walls were decorated with frescoes and marble slabs. This building was erected from the blocks of travertine during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus. According to its inscription, the fountain was dedicated to this emperor. It was destroyed, like many other buildings in Laodicea, during the earthquake in In the Byzantine period, two small rectangular pools were built in front of its parapet. Their lower level was adorned with the columns of composite order, combining the elements of Ionic and Corinthian orders.

The higher level was decorated with columns in the Corinthian order. The pool was filled with water flowing from five taps. When the pool threatened to overflow, excess water was discharged into the sewer pipes. On the east and west side of the building, facing Syria Street, there were statues of lions, and the spaces between the columns were decorated with statues of the deities of the Greek pantheon, including goddesses Athena and Tyche.

Propylon I is a monumental gate, standing at Syria Street, opposite the western corner of the Central Agora. It was built at the end of the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus. The building was destroyed by an earthquake at the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 4th century and then rebuilt.

It collapsed completely during the earthquake in The renovation work in the agora included the re-erection and reconstruction of the colonnades that once surrounded the square. The back of the agora was delimited with a wall, meters long and 11 meters high, covered with paintings.

Opposite the nymphaeum and the propylon, on the south side of Syria Street, there was the Central Agora of the city. This square has a shape of a rectangle, with sides and 60 meters long. On three sides, it was surrounded by porticos, placed on a two-stage platform. The south portico bordered Central Baths, while the east and west porticos led to the shops. During the Roman period, this agora was lined with marble slabs.

Central Baths , located on the south side of Central Agora, occupy an area measuring 89 to 58 meters, i. This building was constructed in the 2nd century CE. It was damaged by the earthquake in Later it was used for other purposes until the early 7th century. The bath complex, designed with the cascaded layout, comprised caldarium - a hot hall, tepidarium - a lukewarm hall, two frigidaria - with cold water, and two apodyteria - changing rooms.

On the western side, there was palaestra - an exercise area. On the west, there is the triple arched entranceway. There are two ancient theatres on the north side of Laodicea. The older and smaller of them is the West Theatre , built in the Hellenistic period. It is oriented to the north-west, and from the upper rows, one can see the white terraces of Pamukkale. Spectators were protected from the sun by an awning, mounted on wooden poles. There are visible holes where these poles were attached.

The North Theatre was constructed when the West Theater became too small for the needs of the growing city. The new theatre was erected of marble. The theatre was built into the hillside in the Greek manner. It faces north-easterly direction, towards the valley of the Lycus River.

Currently, 19 rows of seats in the lower section and 27 rows in the upper section are visible. It is not known how many rows the building had originally because some of them collapsed, and some have been dismantled for the construction purposes.

It is estimated that the North Theatre could sit around 12, people. The names of civic associations and leading families of Laodicea were engraved on the seats, marking the places reserved for them. The theatre was used for the organisation of various shows, possibly even water games, up to the 7th century. In the later period, it became a convenient source of building materials. Between the two theatres, on flat ground, there are the ruins of the North Basilica , built in the 5th century CE, and an earlier Corinthian Temple.

Both buildings have been severely damaged by agricultural activities. In the area, there are numerous scattered fragments of the marble blocks. Some of the columns have inscriptions of the Roman period, from the 1st and the 2nd centuries CE.

According to these incomplete records, the construction of the temple was financed by a leading family of Laodicea, probably in honour of an emperor.

The church was built from blocks of travertine, on the plan of a three-aisled basilica. Researchers date back its construction to the end of the 5th century, after the earthquake of The basilica served the residents of the city to the 7th century. On the western side of the city, there is a ruined gate, know as Ephesian Gate.

It was built at the end of the 1st century CE and dedicated to Emperor Domitian. It had the form of a triple arch, with watchtowers on both sides.

Ephesian Street led through the gate westward along the Meander River valley, to Ephesus. In the western part of Laodicea, the are the impressive remains of an ancient Stadium. According to information on Laodicea provided by UNESCO World Heritage List, it is the largest stadium in ancient Anatolia, although other sources are carefully writing about it as "one of the greatest".

Oriented along an east-west axis, the stadium was built into the slope of a hill. This structure had the length of meters, the width of 70 meters, and could accommodate up to 25, spectators. In the year 60 A.

It was a city of great wealth, with extensive banking operations compare Revelation Little is known of the early history of Christianity there; Timothy, Mark and Epaphras Colossians seem to have been the first to introduce it.

However, Laodicea was early the chief bishopric of Phrygia, and about A. Sagaris, its bishop, was martyred. This water was so concentrated with minerals that the Roman engineers designed removable caps on the aqueduct pipes so they could be cleared of mineral deposits John McRay, Archaeology and The New Testament. By the time this water reached Laodicea, it was lukewarm and full of mineral deposits, which probably made it unpleasant to drink.

The city also had a community of Jews, and then Christians, demonstrated by archaeological remains such as inscriptions and symbols, and ancient textual sources. In the 1 st century AD, a community of observant Jews was known in Laodicea according to a letter sent by the city to a Roman magistrate named Gaius Rubellius, mentioning the Sabbath and sacred rituals Josephus, Antiquities.

Although no synagogue has yet been found, one probably existed in the city. Paul may have never personally visited Laodicea, although he mentions the church there and a letter to the church at Laodicea Colossians , A tenuous hypothesis has even been proposed that the original letter to the Laodiceans was the Epistle of Hebrews, although Apostolic authorship of New Testament books and the audience of Hebrews makes this untenable.

This Letter to the Laodiceans, however, has apparently not survived from antiquity, as no fragment of it or quotation of it has been discovered. The heretic Marcion in the 2 nd century thought it was the letter to the Ephesians, but no one else agreed. As early as the 2 nd century, Church writings mention a Letter of Paul to the Laodiceans, but the particular letter known at the time, surviving in Latin, was considered a forgery and not the authentic letter that Paul mentioned Muratorian Canon; Tertullian, Against Marcion; Theodore of Mopsuestia; Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men.

Recently, a 4 th century Byzantine church, from the time of Constantine, with a baptismal pool, frescos, and a dedicatory inscription intact was discovered. Although this was probably not the same Philemon of the Epistle, it does demonstrate that the name was in use in the area during the Roman period, that people held slaves, and that some of them freed their slaves, as may have been the case with the slave Onesimus and his master Philemon Philemon However, according to the Apostolic Constitutions, Archippus was succeeded by a certain Nymphas as bishop of Laodicea, suggesting that this person in Laodicea was a man.

In nearby Hierapolis, Philip the Apostle and his prophetess daughters lived, and perhaps Philip was the leader and host of the church there Acts In conflict with paganism and often meeting in private homes or even in secret, the Church often faced persecution and the constant dangers of syncretism.

When Epaphras took the Gospel to the Lycus Valley and Paul wrote to the Colossians, the predominant religion in Laodicea would have been the typical Greek and Roman gods, and in particular Zeus. Soon after the life of John, the bishop of Laodicea, Sagaris, was martyred in the 2 nd century Polycrates of Ephesus, in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History.

Also in the next generation of Church leaders in the 2 nd century, the nearby city of Hierapolis was home to Papias and Claudius Apolinarius.