Magnesia ad Sipylum

Magnesia ad Sipylum was an ancient city of Lydia, on the site of modern Manisa in Turkey. It lay about 65 km northeast of Smyrna, now Izmir, on the river Hermus, today the Gediz, at the foot of Mount Sipylus. It was founded by colonists from the Greek region of Magnesia and should not be confused with its older neighbour Magnesia on the Maeander. The first firm mention of the city is from the fifth century BC. In 190 BC the Seleucid king Antiochus the Great was defeated nearby by a Roman army, and under Roman rule the city became important; it was restored with imperial help after an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius. In the thirteenth century it housed the imperial mint and treasury of the Empire of Nicaea and served as its working capital until Constantinople was recovered in 1261. Turkish raids around 1302 emptied the city. Its monuments include the rock formation known as the Niobe of Sipylus and a colossal rock-cut figure called the Suratlu Tash.