Relics from the largest known synagogue of antiquity will go on display next year in a museum in western Turkey.
A museum in western Turkey will soon exhibit artifacts from the largest known synagogue of the ancient world, uncovered fully after six decades of American-led excavations at what was once the seat of power of the fabulously rich King Croesus.
The monumental edifice emerged from the ruins of the ancient city of Sardis, the capital of the Lydian empire in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, when its kings, among them King Croesus, ruled over western Anatolia and minted the world’s first coins.
The excavations at the site near the town of Salihli in Manisa province remains from various epochs, including a section of the city’s famed citadel and a gold refinery from the Lydian period, a huge Ionic temple dedicated to Artemis and a Roman bath-gymnasium complex.
The synagogue, 120 meters long and 18 meters wide, was the center of Jewish religious life at Sardis during the late Roman period. Nearby Jewish cemeteries of more recent ages are the testament of a long Jewish presence in the region. About 50,000 Jews lived in Ottoman western Anatolia in the mid-19th century, including 2,000 in and around Manisa.
No Jewish population remains today after migration during the First and Second World Wars and after the creation of Israel.
