Laodikeia

Laodikeia, also known as Laodicea on the Lycus, is an ancient city located in western Anatolia in the Lycus valley, near the modern town of Denizli in Turkey, close to Pamukkale. It is commonly identified with the site of Laodikeia on the Lycus, a Hellenistic foundation that flourished under later Roman rule.

The city was founded in the Hellenistic period, around the 3rd or 2nd century BCE, and was named after Laodice, wife of Seleucid king Antiochus II Theos. It developed as a regional commercial and banking center, aided by its position along trade routes. Laodikeia was renowned for its textile industry, particularly black wool, and for the famous Laodicean eye salve mentioned in ancient sources. It minted its own coins and grew into a prosperous urban center with a strategic water supply and substantial public buildings.

In 60 CE a major earthquake destroyed the city, but Roman authorities aided in its reconstruction, and Laodikeia was rebuilt in marble, continuing to prosper in the Roman and late antique periods. The site preserves a large theater, a stadium, baths, a bouleuterion or council house, a nymphaeum, and other public structures arranged along a grid plan, along with extensive waterworks and necropoleis.

Laodikeia holds ecclesiastical significance as the church of Laodicea is mentioned in the New Testament (Revelation 3:14–22) and was part of the broader Christian landscape of Asia Minor. Today, the site is an active archaeological excavation area and a visitor destination in Turkey, yielding inscriptions, architectural remains, and mosaics that illuminate Hellenistic, Roman, and early Christian phases.