Sardis (Sart)
The place where money was invented.
Sardis was the capital of Lydia and the place where the world's first standardised coins were struck in the 7th century BC — the beginning of money as we use it today.
The first coins
Under the Lydian kings — Alyattes and then his son Croesus — Sardis began minting coins of fixed weight and purity from electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver found in the river Pactolus. Stamping a guarantee onto a lump of metal meant trade no longer had to be weighed and argued over at every exchange. The wealth it produced was famous enough that 'rich as Croesus' survives as an English idiom to this day.
What remains
The site holds the Temple of Artemis — among the largest Ionic temples ever begun — a Roman gymnasium and bath complex, and one of the best-preserved ancient synagogues found anywhere, its mosaic floors still in place. Sardis was also one of the Seven Churches addressed in the Book of Revelation.
Getting there
Sardis lies about 90 km east of Izmir, roughly ninety minutes by road. Sardis and the Lydian Tumuli of Bin Tepe were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2025, bringing the city and the royal burial landscape into one protected serial property.
