Bergama
At A Glance
Pergamum
, Bergama Today, is located only a few hours drive from Izmir. Pergamum in not
usually prefered even for overnights which has resulted in a few hotel. The Pergamum
is famous for its Acropolis and the Asklepion. The town itself hasn't been touched
by the mass tourism so still has the local taste.
Pergamum will be a good base for those travelling between Izmir
and Çanakkale. There are different accopmmodation alternatives from Pensions to
a few star-rated hotel.
Bergama
Hotels
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| City
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Bergama Attractions
The Acropolis
Dominating the summit of a hill almost 300m (1,000 ft.)
high, the Acropolis provides a humbling view of the surrounding plains, aqueducts,
and reservoir below. The remains of this once-great empire are no less impressive,
despite the fact that most artifacts are now on exhibit at the Pergamum Museum
in Berlin. Here it's still possible to ramble around the Upper and Lower cities,
amid the palaces, public and private buildings, and temples too large to cart
away. Although only the foundation remains, the Temple of Athena was probably
constructed, using the acropolis of Athens as a model, in the 3rd century B.C.
in the earliest days of the Pergamene kingdom. Today you can see the architrave,
along with fragments of columns, in the Berlin Museum.
Eumenis II's construction of the great library rivaled
the one at Alexandria, provoking the Egyptians into an embargo of papyrus. Lacking
such a basic essential, the people of Pergamum were forced to come up with an
alternative, and parchment was invented. Ironically, when Pergamum came under
Roman rule, Marc Antony gifted the entire 200,000-volume collection to Cleopatra,
shipping the contents of the rival library back to Alexandria, where, tragically,
the entire collection was destroyed in a fire. A 3m (10-ft.) statue of the goddess
Athena, discovered in the area of the reading room, is now housed in the Berlin
Museum.
Near the temple
of Athena are the remnants of the Palaces of the Pergamene Kings. The smaller,
northern building is believed to have been that of Attalos, while the larger palace
most likely belonged to Eumenes II. Mosaics discovered in the internal courtyards
of the palaces are now in the Berlin Museum.
With the Romanization of Pergamum, many of the Hellenic foundations
were simply adapted to suit the arriving Roman emperors and administrators. The
Temple of Trajan is an example of this, and because of removal or looting, the
temple remains date to Hellenistic times.
The remarkable theater, built into the hillside and split into three
sections of tiers, was composed of 80 extraordinary levels that seated up to 10,000
people. The panorama is awe-inspiring -- a fact not overlooked by Eumenes II,
who had a 240m-long (800-ft.) stoa (covered arcade) constructed along the upper
terrace of the theater. At the northern end of the terrace promenade was the Temple
of Dionysus, which, along with the altar, is in a fairly good state of preservation.
The Temple of Dionysus was restored by Caracalla after a fire gutted the interior.
The largest building on the Acropolis is the Altar of Zeus, built during the reign
of Eumenes II. Fragments of the altar were recycled in the construction of the
Byzantine fortification walls, but rediscovered by Carl Humann in 1871 and later
reconstructed in the Berlin Museum. The reliefs (also in Berlin) depicted the
mythological battle between the Giants and the Gods -- an analogy to the Pergamene
victory of the Galatians.
The Agora and Agora Temple lie to the south of the Altar of Zeus. As you head
down the hill to the south, you arrive at the Lower City, where, up until a brush
fire cleared out the overgrowth, not much more than crumbling foundations remain.
Ambitious types and those heading down to town on foot should keep an eye out
for what's left of the Sanctuaries of Hera and of Demeter, the Temple of Asklepios,
several gymnasiums, a House attributed to Attalos, and a Lower Agora.
The Asklepion
This famed ancient medical center, built in honor of Asklepios, the god of healing,
was also the world's first psychiatric hospital. Many of the treatments employed
at Pergamum, in complement with a sacred source of water that was later discovered
as having radioactive properties, have been used for centuries, and are once again
finding modern application. The treatments included psychotherapy, massage, herbal
remedies, mud and bathing treatments, the interpretation of dreams, and the drinking
of water. The Asklepion gained in prominence under the Romans in the 2nd century
A.D., but a sacred site existed prior to this, as early as the 4th century B.C.
Oddly enough, everybody who was anybody was dying to get in; patients included
Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, and Caracalla. Therapy included mud baths, music concerts,
and doses of water from the sacred fountain. Hours of therapy probed the meaning
of the previous night's dreams, as patients believed dreams recounted a visit
by the god Asklepios, who held the key to curing the illness. Galen, the influential
physician and philosopher who was born in Pergamum in A.D. 129, trained and then
later became an attendant to the gladiators here.
Access is via the Sacred Way, which at 807m (2,690 ft.) long and colonnaded, originally
connected the Asklepeion with the Acropolis. The sacred way becomes the stately
Via Tecta near the entrance to the site and leads to a courtyard and fallen Propylaeum,
or Monumental Gate. Don't miss the focus of the first courtyard, an altar inscribed
with the emblem of modern medicine, the serpent. To the right of the courtyard
is the Emperor's Room, which was also used as a library. The circular domed Temple
of Asklepios, with a diameter of 23m (78 ft.), recalls the Pantheon in Rome, which
was completed only 20 years earlier. Reachable through an underground tunnel is
what is traditionally called the Temple of Telesphorus, which served as both the
treatment rooms and the sleeping chambers, an indication that sleep was integral
in the actual healing process. At various spots in the center of the complex are
a total of three pools and fountains, used for bathing, drinking, and various
other forms of treatment. The semicircular Roman Theatre flanks the colonnaded
promenade on the northwest corner of the site.
Red Basilica (Kizil Avlu)
This is one impressive pile of red brick. Built during the reign of Hadrian, and
dedicated to the Egyptian god Serapis (the model for the Greek god Isis), this
temple was later to become one of the seven churches of the Apocalypse. The temple
was destroyed in the Arab raids of A.D. 716 to 717, and then was converted by
the Byzantines into a basilica. The enormous building straddles the ancient Selinus
River (today the Bergama Cayi), whose two subterranean galleries provide a canal
for the water to pass. True to the ideal that holy ground is always holy ground,
a small mosque resides in one of the towers.
Bergama Archaeology Museum (Bergama Arkeoloji Müzesi)
The collection of statues, objects, and gravestones housed in this museum represents
a fraction of the Acropolis and Asklepion ruins that the Germans didn't carry
off. In spite of this, a visit here is a worthy complement to the site visits,
and the curators have even been kind enough to create a faithful replica of Zeus's
Altar, saving you from a trip to Berlin. Some other notable objects amidst the
artifacts include a statue of Hadrian taken from the Asklepion library, a 2nd-century-A.D.
stone horse from the altar of Zeus, and the oldest statue in the museum, a 4th-century-B.C.
kuros, an early example of the realism of the sculpted human form.
The ethnographic wing exhibits a collection of objects, costumes, and textiles
from the surrounding region.
