Philadelphia (Alaşehir (Philadelphia))

Aegean, Turkey 2 tours visit here

Philadelphia, the ancient city beneath modern Alaşehir in Manisa Province, lies in the inland Aegean, in fertile valley country east of Sardis. It was founded in the 2nd century BC by the Attalid rulers of Pergamon and named after King Attalus II, whose epithet Philadelphus, brother-loving, gave the city its name. Ancient writers noted its frequent earthquakes. Its importance for most visitors is Biblical: Philadelphia is one of the Seven Churches of Revelation, and one of only two addressed without reproach. It stayed a Christian and Byzantine centre for centuries, holding out as an isolated outpost long after the surrounding country had passed into Turkish hands. The clearest survival is the Byzantine Basilica of St. John, whose enormous brick piers, known locally as Beşkapılar, still rise among the houses and gardens of the modern town. The ruins sit in an ordinary working town rather than an archaeological park, and the visit is short, most often made as a stop on a Seven Churches route between Sardis and Laodicea. Alaşehir is grape-growing country, with vineyards worked here since antiquity. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons; midsummer inland is hot.