Piedmont Travel Group

At Piedmont Travel Group, It is our goal to provide the highest QUALITY travel programs to create Education, Experience and Memories that will last a life time. QUALITY Webster’s Dictionary defines quality as A degree of Excellence. At Piedmont Travel Group we understand that you want a certain degree of excellence in your travel program. That is why our itineraries were created with you in mind.

Laodicea Laodicea is an ancient city in present-day western Turkey, founded by Seleucid King Antiochus II in honor of his wife, Laodice. Laodicea became a prosperous Roman market town on the trade route from the East, famous for its woolen and cotton cloths. The city was an early center of Christianity and one of the Seven Churches of Revelation. In the 4th century, Apollinaris of Laodicea proposed the theory later called Apollinarianism, which was considered heretical by the Catholic Church. A large earthquake destroyed Laodicea and it has never been rebuilt. Remnants of the ancient city include a stadium, sarcophagi, an amphitheatre, an odeon, a cistern and an aqueduct. Most of the city remains to be excavated. Most visitors use nearby Denizli (population 200,000) as a base for exploring Laodicea

Philadelphia Rev. 1:11;3:7 The sixth letter of the St. John to the seven churches of Asia Minor was the letter to Philadelphia. The city lay along a fault line, and is subject to frequent and sometimes powerful earthquakes, making the task of recovering the past in archaeology a difficult one.... The city may have been founded by Eumenes King of Pergamum (197-160 BCE) in the C2BCE, and the name was likely after his brother Attalus (later reigned 159-138 BCE), who through loyalty won the title Philadelphus (brother love). The city was handed over to Roman rule in 133 BCE on the death of Attalus III. The city may well have been founded for a social purpose. Ramsey states that the city was a missionary city from the beginning, founded to promote a certain unity of spirit, customs, and loyalty within the realm. Located along the Cogamus River, the valley connects with the Hermus River basin to the northwest, where Sardis stood 26 miles away. The valley road was the lifeline connection between the Phyrgian territory to the east and the harbors of the Aegean to the west. The earthquakes are amply recorded in history, a severe on occurring in 17 CE, which destroyed this city and eleven others. Sardis fared worse from the initial quake, but Philadelphia shook more frequently from severe aftershocks, traumatizing the population. Strabo noted the city was ever subject to quakes. After Emperor Tiberius aided in their rebuilding, it took the new name of Neocaesarea (New Caesar). Under Vespasian’s rule (69-79 CE), it changed names to Flavia. By the third century, paganism had held on in the face of a Christianizing Empire, and the city became known as little Athens for its dedication to deities. None of these names or epithets lasted, and today the modern city is called Alasehir. Early Church history reveals that Ignatius made a visit to the city on his way to his martyrdom in Rome, and sent a letter to the church there.

Sardis Sardis (modern Sart) was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia and home King Croesus (560-546 BC), famous for his wealth. Liberated from the Persians by Alexander the Great in c.340 BC, Sardis became a Greek city with an impressive Temple of Artemis. In the Roman era, the temple was expanded and used also for the imperial cult, and a huge bath-gymnasium complex was built. Ancient Sardis had a very large and prosperous Jewish community, which produced the largest ancient synagogue outside of Palestine. Christianity arrived in the 1st century AD and Sardis was one of the Seven Churches of Revelation. Sardis now lies entirely in ruins and is an archaeological site in the village of Sartmahmut with ongoing excavations

Thyatira (Akahisar) Thyatira, modern Akhisar or Akisar, is located 42 miles (67 km) inland from the Aegean Sea in Turkey.... Near the center of Akhisar, the archaeological remains of Thyatira are located in a fenced off rectangular city block. Among the ruins is a public building (basilica) dating from the 5th or 6th century AD. In places it is preserved to a height of 16 feet. There are also columns and arches from an ancient portico dating from about the 4th century AD. Several Greek inscriptions lie among the ruins of ancient Thyatira, and many more have been taken to the museum in Manisa (which is usually closed). Many coins have been found at the site, from which it is evident that guilds of bakers, bronze smiths, wool workers, potters, linen weavers and tanners were active in the city. Such guilds would often hold banquets which included the eating of food offered to idols and participation in immoral sexual acts (cf. Rev. 2:2024)