Short answer: All seven churches of Revelation were in cities of the Roman province of Asia, which is now western Turkey. In the order of Revelation 2–3 they are Ephesus (Selçuk), Smyrna (Izmir), Pergamon (Bergama), Thyatira (Akhisar), Sardis (Sart), Philadelphia (Alaşehir) and Laodicea (near Denizli), about 485 km (300 miles) by road from first to last. Patmos, the island where John saw the vision, lies about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Ephesus and belongs to Greece.
Revelation names the seven cities in a single line: "send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea" (Revelation 1:11, NIV). The map below puts them on a modern map in that order, with the roads that link them today.
Open the full-size map (3200 × 1800 pixels) to read the labels on a phone or to print it.
This page is about where the churches are and how they connect. For what each of the seven letters says, see our Seven Churches of Revelation guide.
Where the Seven Churches Are Today
Three of the cities are in Izmir province, three in Manisa province and one, Laodicea, in Denizli province. The coordinates below are those of each archaeological site in OpenStreetMap, so you can paste them into any map app.
| Church | Modern town and province | Coordinates | What you can see today |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Ephesus (Revelation 2:1–7) | Selçuk, Izmir province | 37.94° N, 27.34° E | A large excavated Roman city with the Library of Celsus and the Great Theatre; UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015 |
| 2. Smyrna (2:8–11) | Izmir (Konak), Izmir province | 38.42° N, 27.14° E | The Agora of Smyrna, an open-air site in the city, mostly rebuilt after an earthquake in AD 178 |
| 3. Pergamon (2:12–17) | Bergama, Izmir province | 39.13° N, 27.18° E | The acropolis with its steep theatre, the Asclepion and the Red Basilica; UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014 |
| 4. Thyatira (2:18–29) | Akhisar, Manisa province | 38.92° N, 27.84° E | A small excavated area in the town (Tepe Mezarlığı) with part of a Roman colonnaded street |
| 5. Sardis (3:1–6) | Sart, near Salihli, Manisa province | 38.49° N, 28.04° E | The Temple of Artemis with a small church at one corner, the bath-gymnasium complex and a synagogue |
| 6. Philadelphia (3:7–13) | Alaşehir, Manisa province | 38.35° N, 28.52° E | The massive pillars of the 6th-century Church of St John |
| 7. Laodicea (3:14–22) | Near Denizli, Denizli province | 37.84° N, 29.11° E | A large excavated city with two theatres, the largest stadium in Anatolia and a 4th-century church |
Each church has its own article: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. For opening hours and tickets at Laodicea, see our Laodicea visitor guide, and for a plan of the ruins at Ephesus, our Ephesus map and walking route.
Why Revelation Lists Them in This Order
Revelation gives the cities in the same order twice: in the list in chapter 1 and in the letters of chapters 2 and 3. On a map the order makes sense. Start at Ephesus, go north along the coast to Smyrna and Pergamon, turn southeast inland through Thyatira, Sardis and Philadelphia, and finish at Laodicea, from where the road runs back west to Ephesus.
The best-known explanation comes from William Ramsay, an archaeologist who spent four decades traveling in Asia Minor and recording its inscriptions and geography. In The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia (1904) he argued that the churches are named "in the order in which a messenger sent from Patmos would reach them." That messenger "would naturally land at Ephesus," take the great road north through Smyrna to Pergamum, then follow the imperial post road to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, "and so back to Ephesus."
Ramsay added two points. He thought the seven cities worked as hubs, each passing letters on to the smaller churches in its district. And he noted that being on the road was not enough to make the list: a messenger on this circuit also passed through Magnesia, Tralles and Hierapolis, which had churches too but are not among the seven.
Later commentators took the idea seriously. H. B. Swete (1906) wrote that Ramsay's answer was "doubtless" the true one. R. H. Charles (1920) called it "an attractive hypothesis", but thought the number seven, sacred to the author, explains why there are exactly seven. The road itself is well attested: Britannica describes Thyatira as an important station on the Roman road from Pergamum to Laodicea. That John's order follows it is a scholarly reconstruction, though, because Revelation never describes the route.
Distances and Driving Times Between the Seven Churches
We measured the road distance between the archaeological sites with OSRM, a routing service that uses OpenStreetMap road data, and rounded the results. The times assume a car on today's roads with no stops or traffic, so allow more for a real day.
| Leg | Road distance | Driving time |
|---|---|---|
| Ephesus to Smyrna (Selçuk to Izmir) | About 75 km (45 miles) | About 1 hour |
| Smyrna to Pergamon (Izmir to Bergama) | About 115 km (70 miles) | About 1.5 hours |
| Pergamon to Thyatira (Bergama to Akhisar) | About 85 km (55 miles) | About 1 hour 15 min |
| Thyatira to Sardis (Akhisar to Sart) | About 60 km (40 miles) | About 1 hour |
| Sardis to Philadelphia (Sart to Alaşehir) | About 50 km (30 miles) | About 40 min |
| Philadelphia to Laodicea (Alaşehir to Denizli) | About 100 km (60 miles) | About 1 hour 15 min |
| Ephesus to Laodicea, all seven | About 485 km (300 miles) | About 6.5 hours |
| Laodicea back to Ephesus | About 185 km (115 miles) | About 2 hours |
| Full loop from Ephesus | About 670 km (415 miles) | About 8.5 hours |
In a straight line the churches are close neighbors: no two cities next to each other on the list are more than about 80 km (50 miles) apart. The longest leg by road is Smyrna to Pergamon. From the cruise port at Kuşadası, Ephesus is the nearest of the seven, about 20 km (12 miles) away; see our Kuşadası cruise port guide for getting there.
Where Is Patmos?
Patmos is a small Greek island in the Dodecanese, about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Ephesus in a straight line. Revelation 1:9 places John "on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (NIV). Under the Romans the island was a place of exile, and tradition dates John's stay to about AD 95.
In John's day Ephesus was a Roman port with a harbor basin and a channel to the sea, so a ship from Patmos could sail straight to it, which is where Ramsay's messenger begins his round. Today the Cave of the Apocalypse, where tradition says John received the vision, and the Monastery of St John in the hilltop town of Chora are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed in 1999.
Because Patmos is in Greece, it is not on the road loop. It is a separate trip by sea and is not part of our Seven Churches tours.
Do the Seven Churches Still Exist?
Not as the congregations John wrote to. In the first century a church was a community of believers, not a building: Paul's letter to the Colossians sends greetings "to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house" (Colossians 4:15, NIV). Those first-century congregations no longer exist, but all seven places can still be visited.
Smyrna is now Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city. The other six are archaeological sites or ruins inside modern towns. Christianity lasted in the region for many centuries after Revelation was written. The church buildings you see today, such as the Basilica of St John at Ephesus or the 4th-century church at Laodicea, came long after John, and Philadelphia held out as a Byzantine city until 1390, long after the cities around it had fallen to the Turks. For a site-by-site look at what survives, see the Seven Churches guide.
What Do the Seven Churches Represent?
Readers of Revelation have given three main answers, and they can be held together.
- Real congregations. Each letter speaks to its own city's situation, from persecution at Smyrna to complacency at Laodicea, which is why the local history of each place matters.
- The whole church. Seven was a sacred number for the author, as R. H. Charles noted, and every letter ends with a call to hear "what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 2:7, NIV), in the plural. An early Christian list of New Testament books, the Muratorian Fragment, already read it this way: John, "though he writes to seven churches, nevertheless speaks to all."
- Stages of church history. The notes of the Scofield Reference Bible (1917) added a prophetic reading, in which the letters show "seven phases of the spiritual history of the church" from about AD 96 to the end. Revelation itself does not say this.
How Many Days Do You Need to Visit All Seven?
Driving the full loop takes about 8.5 hours on its own, and each site needs time on foot, from a short stop at Thyatira, where little survives above ground, to most of a day at Ephesus. Four days with three hotel nights is a realistic minimum for all seven; our Seven Churches guide suggests five to six days at a slower pace.
That is how our private tour runs. The Seven Churches tour from Kuşadası takes four days and three nights: Ephesus and Smyrna on the first day, Pergamon and Thyatira on the second, Sardis and Philadelphia on the third with a night at Pamukkale, and Laodicea and Colossae on the last day before the drive back. The same itinerary starts from Izmir for travelers arriving there.
With less time, the three-day pilgrimage covers five of the seven: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira and Sardis. Laodicea, the farthest from the coast, can also be seen on its own as a 12-hour day trip from Kuşadası.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where are the 7 churches of Revelation located today?
All seven are in western Turkey. Ephesus is at Selçuk, Smyrna is Izmir, Pergamon is Bergama, Thyatira is Akhisar, Sardis is at Sart near Salihli, Philadelphia is Alaşehir and Laodicea is just outside Denizli. Three are in Izmir province, three in Manisa province and one in Denizli province.
Is there a printable map of the seven churches of Revelation?
You can save the map at the top of this page and print it in landscape. It shows the seven cities in Revelation's order with their modern names, the road route, Patmos and a scale bar. The coordinates in the table let you find each site in any map app.
How far apart are the seven churches of Revelation?
By road, neighboring churches are 50 to 115 km (30 to 70 miles) apart. The route from Ephesus to Laodicea in Revelation's order is about 485 km (300 miles), and the full loop back to Ephesus about 670 km (415 miles), roughly 8.5 hours of driving without stops.
Why are the seven churches listed in that order?
The classic explanation, from William Ramsay in 1904, is that it is the order in which a messenger would reach them. Ramsay argued that a courier landing at Ephesus from Patmos would go north to Smyrna and Pergamon, then southeast through Thyatira, Sardis and Philadelphia to Laodicea, along Roman roads. It is a scholarly reconstruction: Revelation itself does not describe the route.
Do the seven churches in Revelation still exist?
The first-century congregations do not, but all seven cities can be visited. Smyrna lives on as Izmir, and the other six are archaeological sites or ruins inside modern towns, several with church buildings from later centuries.
What do the seven churches represent?
They were real congregations in seven cities, and each letter addresses its own church's situation. Many readers also take them to stand for the whole church, since seven was a sacred number for the author and every letter speaks to "the churches". Some later interpreters, following the Scofield Reference Bible, read them as stages of church history.
How far is Patmos from Ephesus?
About 100 km (60 miles) in a straight line, to the southwest across the Aegean. Patmos is a Greek island, so it is reached by sea and is not on the road route between the seven churches.
Can you visit all seven churches of Revelation in one trip?
Yes. By car it takes at least four days with three overnight stays, which is how our Seven Churches tour from Kuşadası or Izmir is planned. Ephesus alone can be visited in a day from Kuşadası or Izmir.
Which of the seven churches is closest to Kuşadası cruise port?
Ephesus, about 20 km (12 miles) and 25 minutes by road from the port. Smyrna, in central Izmir, is about 95 km (60 miles) and 1 hour 15 minutes away.
Map: Tuncher Tourism, drawn from Natural Earth coastline data (public domain) and road and river data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), with road routes from OSRM. Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Bernard Gagnon (CC BY-SA 3.0), Sharon Hahn Darlin (CC BY 2.0), Francesco Bini (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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