Laodicea
“Greet the brothers who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the assembly that is in his house.” Colossians 4:15
The Laodicea of the book of Revelation was named after the Seleucid Antiochus II’s wife Laodice. It came under the control of the Attalid Pergamum empire in the early 2nd c BC and then the Roman Empire when all of the Pergamum Kingdom was bequeathed to Rome by Attalus III on his death. The city sits at the southern side of the Lycus valley today - the valley was a massive lake in the 1st century AD. The city was destroyed by earthquakes several times (27 BC, 60 AD) and finally abandoned after an earthquake in the early 600’s AD.
From 240 BC on, Jews were settled in this area. It is evident from Paul’s letters that Laodicea was home to an early community of Christians. Excavations at Laodicea have been going on continually since 2003, and prior to that in the late 1800’s, the 1960’s and 1990’s. There are excavations of a large peristyle home that also was used as a house church, and of an early christian purpose built church with a cruciform baptistery. Excavations of the roman civic structures are amazing: the large west theater, the north theater, one of the largest roman stadiums known, temples, the newly reconstructed Trajan Nymphaeum just to name a few.
We visited Laodicea this May and tried to find some of the examples of early Byzantine era Christian graffiti. We found some examples as you’ll see in the pictures, but we couldn’t find the cross and menorah that are carved on a column segment that has been erected near the agora. It was amazing to see how much the site has grown / changed since a visit 2 years ago! We succumbed to the hot air balloon tourist craze at Pamukkale and found it was a great way to get a sense of the Lycus valley and positions of Laodicea , Hieropolis and Colossea.
Laodicea. Syria Street running East / West
