The district town of Akhisar, on the İzmir–İstanbul road, stands directly on top of ancient Thyateira, whose history reaches back to the early Bronze Age. The ancient city was a weaving centre, and it sat where the region's roads crossed, which gave it commercial and military weight. In Akhisar the site is also known as the Tepe cemetery.
Thyateira is one of the seven churches of early Christianity, and visitors come for that as much as for the excavated ground. It was also the scene of a Roman battle. In AD 366 Procopius, a commander from Cilicia who had risen in revolt for the imperial throne and marched with the legions that joined him, met the forces loyal to Valens — brother of the heir Valentinian I — at Thyateira. Valens's troops prevailed in what passed into history as the Battle of Thyateira, and the captured Procopius was executed. The site lies in the centre of Akhisar at Hürriyet, 45200.
Getting there
- Access
- The tombs are in the centre of Akhisar and are reached from the İzmir–İstanbul road.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Manisa as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6.7 °C in January to 28.1 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (137 mm) and lightest in August (9 mm). Long-term means for 1930-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
