After 70 years of excavation, ancient Sardis becomes a UNESCO World Heritage site

Date: June 25, 2026 Source: Cornell University Summary: After nearly seven decades of excavation, the legendary ancient city of Sardis has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, celebrating years of discoveries that continue to reshape its history. Archaeologists say the biggest breakthroughs don't happen in a single season—they emerge as decades of evidence slowly come together. Share: Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIN Email FULL STORY An aerial view shows the Temple of Artemis and the acropolis that were excavated in Sardis. Credit: Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College For thousands of years, the ancient city of Sardis in western Turkey changed hands as Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and Ottomans rose and fell. Yet while the city's rulers changed repeatedly, one thing has remained remarkably steady. Since 1958, archaeologists have returned every year as part of the Harvard Cornell Exploration of Ancient Sardis, making it one of the world's longest running institutional excavation projects. "It's really important that it has institutional continuity," said Benjamin Anderson, associate professor of history of art and visual studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. "Many of us know and have been mentored . As a result, it's one of the few long-term archaeological projects in the region that has generated a critical mass of data." For the past several years, Anderson has focused on documenting the walls and buildings of Sardis' acropolis, which became an important center during the Byzantine period after Roman rule. "This is a city that shows up in lots of ancient historical sources," he said. "But now, just in the last 75 years or so, we have the possibility of telling that story, also, through what the project has found archaeologically." This summer marked another milestone. Thanks to decades of excavation and the support of the local community, Sardis was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. "The opportunity to really start understanding a culture through the material remains is pretty unusual, and it requires that kind of long-term commitment," Anderson said. "That's also what's being celebrated . This project has always been distinguished from the very beginning by a desire to communicate results and to make their work legible to tourists and to locals and all manner of different audiences." Sardis Preserves Thousands of Years of History Once the capital of the Iron Age kingdom of Lydia, Sardis occupied a strategic location between the Mediterranean and the Anatolian plateau. According to Annetta Alexandridis, associate professor of the history of art and classics in A&S, it served as "a place of cultural encounter between the East and West." The Lydian era remains especially significant to archaeologists and historians.