Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Saturday, September 30: The next day was beautiful, sunny and cool. After breakfast, we drove to the Akropol (Acropolis) of ancient Pergamon, high on a hill overlooking the modern city of Bergama. The road was poorly marked, and we missed it the first time by. The ruins were impressive, next to Ephesus probably the best in Turkey. We hooked up with a private guide escorting two young Chinese men from Singapore. He was taking them to all the major sites in Turkey. He was giving his tour in English (the universal language) and was very good. (We asked if we could join them and gave the guide a good tip at the end.) The site of the Pergamon acropolis was first settled about 800 B.C., but it wasn't very important until the 3rd Century B.C. In the 2nd Century B.C., the city's king ruled most of the western coast of what is now Turkey. Most of the major buildings (the Temple of Athena, the library, the Altar of Zeus, the 10,000 seat outdoor theater, and several lesser temples) date from that time. The city fell under Roman domination in 133 B.C. Construction of the Temple of Trajan began during his reign. Emperors Hadrian and Caracalla also visited the city. Eventually, though, the inhabitants abandoned the acropolis and moved down to the plain below. In time, they used the old walls and buildings as a quarry for stone to build their houses.
We found that there was not much left of most of the buildings. We knew the Altar of Zeus had been taken, stone by stone, by the Germans, who reconstructed it in Berlin, then built the Pergamon Museum around it. Aside from the theater, the Temple of Trajan was the most impressive, probably because much of it has been, and still is being, restored under the direction of German archaeologists. The view from the acropolis of the plain and the nearby river was fantastic.
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