Thyatira lies 40 miles south-east of Pergamum.
In the first century, Thyatira was famous for its dyeing industry and had more trade guilds than other contemporary cities in the Roman province of Asia.
It is known from the book of Acts that one of the first Christian converts from Thyatira was a businesswoman named Lydia, who dealt in purple cloth.
At the end of the first century, “Thyatira not only rivalled Ephesus in busy Christian service, but exhibited the love which Ephesus lacked, preserved the faith which was imperilled at Pergamum, and shared with Smyrna the virtue of patient endurance in tribulation.” (John Stott)
However, there is an issue of debauchery among some of the second generation believers.
Now all that’s left of the old Thyatira is a fenced in pile of ruins right in the middle of a busy city. (Commerce still seems to be important.)
There are the ruins of a basilica somewhere among the ruins, but nothing has been labelled, so it is anyone’s guess of what is what. (There is a column with a cross, but the cross is carved sideways, so it looks more like later day graffiti…)
