Sardis and the Lydian Tumuli of Bin Tepe

Money as we know it was arguably born at Sardis: the Lydian kings who ruled here from the 8th to the 6th century BCE struck some of the world's first coins from their proverbial wealth. Across the plain at Bin Tepe, their burial mounds rank among the largest tumulus tombs anywhere, while the city itself carried on under Persian, Greek, Roman and finally Byzantine rule. UNESCO inscribed Sardis and the tumuli in 2025.