Guide
Bin Tepeler, the Lydian tumuli, is a tumulus necropolis lying between the Gediz river and Lake Marmara, about six to twelve kilometres north of the ancient city of Sardis in the Salihli district of Manisa. It is made up of monumental tombs built in the eighth to sixth centuries BC for the kings and the aristocracy of the Lydian kingdom, whose capital was Sardis. Archaeological surface survey has established that at least 119 tumuli stood here in antiquity. Together with the urban area of Sardis, Bin Tepeler was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2025.
The largest of the tumuli belongs to the Lydian king Alyattes. It is 355 metres across, sixty-nine metres high and 1,115 metres round, which places it among the largest tumulus tombs in the world. Its burial chamber was found by the Prussian envoy Ludwig Peter Spiegelthal, already plundered in antiquity.
At least 149 tumuli stood here in the 1940s. Some have been destroyed by farming, and only 115 have survived to the present.
