It's another long drive today, combined with two tour stops along the way. The roads continue to be excellent, so the drive went by fairly easily.
"Pergamon was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located 26 kilometres (16 mi) from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern-day Bakırçay) and northwest of the modern city of Bergama, Turkey.
During the Hellenistic period, it became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon in 281–133 BC under the Attalid dynasty, who transformed it into one of the major cultural centers of the Greek world. Pergamon was the northernmost of the seven churches of Asia cited in the New Testament Book of Revelation.
The city is centered on a 335-metre-high (1,100 ft) mesa, which formed its acropolis. This mesa falls away sharply on the north, west, and east sides, but three natural terraces on the south side provide a route up to the top. To the west of the acropolis, the Selinus River (modern Bergamaçay) flows through the city, while the Cetius river (modern Kestelçay) passes by to the east.
Pergamon was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014."
During the Hellenistic period, it became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon in 281–133 BC under the Attalid dynasty, who transformed it into one of the major cultural centers of the Greek world. Pergamon was the northernmost of the seven churches of Asia cited in the New Testament Book of Revelation.
The city is centered on a 335-metre-high (1,100 ft) mesa, which formed its acropolis. This mesa falls away sharply on the north, west, and east sides, but three natural terraces on the south side provide a route up to the top. To the west of the acropolis, the Selinus River (modern Bergamaçay) flows through the city, while the Cetius river (modern Kestelçay) passes by to the east.
Pergamon was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014."
Wladyslaw Sojka - Copied from the German Wikipedia. Authors: Uploaded by Wladyslaw Sojka, modified by Luestling
Pergamon's oldest temple is a sanctuary of Athena from the 4th century BC.
On the highest point of the citadel is the Temple of Trajan, the Traianeum or Trajaneum. The Temple is also called the Temple of Zeus Philios, as both Zeus and Trajan were worshiped in the Temple, the former sharing it with the latter.
 |  |
 |  |
The Theater of Pergamon, one of the steepest theaters in the world, has a capacity of 10,000 people and was constructed in the 3rd century BC.
 |  |
Now we're able to go down into the theater to see it close up.
And then back out the top of the theater, and inside the Temple of Athena.
We're about finished with our tour of Pergamon...
One last spot to see - it's only a foundation now, but Gerri found an App on her phone which showed a graphic of the Pergamon Altar overlayed on what her phone camera was looking at (see photo below):
(From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergamon_Altar -- it's pretty interesting read for Wikipedia)
"The Pergamon Altar was a monumental construction built during the reign of the Ancient Greek King Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BC on one of the terraces of the acropolis.
The structure was 35.74 metres (116' 31/32") wide and 33.4 metres (109' 6 5/8") deep; the front stairway alone was almost 20 metres (65' 11/16") wide. The base was decorated with a frieze in high relief showing the battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods known as the Gigantomachy. There was a second, smaller and less well-preserved high relief frieze on the inner court walls which surrounded the actual fire altar on the upper level of the structure at the top of the stairs. In a set of consecutive scenes, it depicts events from the life of Telephus, legendary founder of the city of Pergamon and son of the hero Heracles and Auge, one of Tegean king Aleus's daughters.
In 1878, the German engineer Carl Humann started official excavations on the acropolis of Pergamon, an effort that lasted until 1886. The relief panels from the Pergamon Altar were subsequently transferred to Berlin, where they were placed on display in the Pergamon Museum."
Gerri's captured image shows the backside - the front-side is shown below, as displayed in the Berlin Pergamon Museum.
We now move on to Assos - the lair of Aristotle, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath, for 3 of his 62 years (384–322 BC).
The city was founded between 1000 to 900 BC by Aeolian colonists from Lesbos, a nearby Greek island. The major ruined structures date from about 6th - 2nd century B.C.
At the highest point of the city is the Temple of Athena - a model is provided of what archaeologists think what it looked like:
What remains today:
Then we walked down down down - a sign said it was about a kilometer, but felt much further with a lot of steps - to discover more ruins of additional structures.
"West of the acropolis stands the well preserved 4th century BC city wall and main gate with 14-meter-high (46 ft) towers. An ancient paved road leads northeast through the gate to the ruins of a large 2nd-century BC gymnasium, a 2nd-century BC agora (marketplace) and a bouleuterion (council hall). Further south toward the seashore is a 3rd-century BC theater built for 5,000 spectators."
"West of the acropolis stands the well preserved 4th century BC city wall and main gate with 14-meter-high (46 ft) towers. An ancient paved road leads northeast through the gate to the ruins of a large 2nd-century BC gymnasium, a 2nd-century BC agora (marketplace) and a bouleuterion (council hall). Further south toward the seashore is a 3rd-century BC theater built for 5,000 spectators."
And then we arrived at our lodging for the evening - we don't always stay in 5-Star hotels, but when we do it's under $100/night and comes with a $15 buffet of mostly food we recognize from home. It was a nice, but brief stay.
Here's a photo we actually took of the mosque you see in the background - taken from our 5th floor elevator lobby.
The sun sets on our second to last full day in Turkey, on the Dardanelles Strait, no less.
RSS Feed
