Akhisar

Sister cities

• Lausanne
• Donji Vakuf
• Gostivar

History

The town was the most important center in ancient North Lydia. Findings suggest a possible earlier period of pre-eminence under the Hittites. Persian occupation of the region took place around 500 BC. Thyateira was later conquered by Alexander the Great. In later years, Thyateira was captured successively by the Seleucid Empire, the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon, and by Mithridates VI of Pontus, until the Roman Era that started in 80 BC. In 214 AD, the Roman Emperor Caracalla promoted the town to the status of a regional and administrative center with powers of adjudication (conventus). The city flourished considerably under the Romans and became a large metropolis with 3 gymnasiums. As of the 2nd century AD, Christianity spread in western Anatolia by the actions of apostles like John the Evangelist and Paul. Thyatira is mentioned twice in the New Testament. The Book of Acts refers to a woman of Thyatira named Lydia (Acts 16:14), though the Apostle Paul converted her to Christ in Philippi of Macedonia, not Thyatira. The other occurrence is as one of the Seven Churches of Asia, in the church of which was a woman identified as a prophetess and called "Jezebel" for deceiving some of the Christians there into compromising with idolatry and committing sexual immorality (Revelation 2:18-29). After the partition of the Roman Empire in 395 and the upcoming of Islam at the beginning of the 7th century, raids by Arabs resulted in great loss of land for Byzantium and the region of Thyatira witnessed many battles between Byzantine and Arab forces. Thyatira was repeatedly attacked by the Arabs and later by the Turks, however it was rebuilt over the ruins. In the 12th century, a large-scale inflow of Turkish tribes started. Thyatira swayed back and forth between Byzantine and…

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  81
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  79
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  78
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  68
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  66
• Syrian Woodpecker

  Dendrocopos syriacus (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) · Aves
  54
• Eurasian Jay

  Garrulus glandarius (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  48
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  47