Pergamon was an ancient Greek city in Aeolis, currently located 26 kilometres (16 mil) from the Aegean Sea on apromontory on the north side of the river Caicus (Bakırcay). Today, the main sites of ancient Pergamon are to the north and west of the modern city of Bergama in Turkey.
Some ancient authors regarded it as a colony of the Arcadians, but the various origin stories all belong to legend. The Greek historians reconstructed a complete history for it due to confusion with the distant Teuthrania. It became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon during the Hellenistic period, under the Attalid dynasty, 281–133 BC. Pergamon is cited in the Book of Revelation as one of the seven churches of Asia.
Upper Acropolis
The Great Altar of Pergamon is in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin. The base of this altar remains on the upper part of the Acropolis.Other notable structures still in existence on the upper part of the Acropolis include:
• The Hellenistic Theater with a seating capacity of 10,000. This had the steepest seating of any known theater in the ancient world.
• The Sanctuary of Trajan (also known as the Trajaneum)
• The Sanctuary of Athena
• The Library of Pergamum
• The Royal palaces
• The Heroon - a shrine where the kings of Pergamon, particularly, Attalus I and Eumenes II, were worshipped.[8]
• The Temple of Dionysus
• The Upper Agora
• The Roman baths complex
• Diodorus Pasporos heroon
• Arsenals
Pergamon's library on the Acropolis (the ancient Library of Pergamum) was the second best in the ancient Greek civilization. When the Ptolemies stopped exporting papyrus, partly because of competition and shortages, the Pergamenes invented a new substance to use in codices, called pergaminus or pergamena (parchment) after the city. This was made of fine calfskin, a predecessor ofvellum. The library at Pergamom was believed to contain 200,000 volumes, which Mark Antony later gave to Cleopatra as a wedding present.
The site is today easily accessible by the Bergama Acropolis Gondola from the base station in northeastern Bergama.
Lower Acropolis
The lower part of the Acropolis has the following structures:
• the Upper Gymnasium
• the Middle Gymnasium
• the Lower Gymnasium
• the Temple of Demeter
• the Sanctuary of Hera
• the House of Attalus
• the Lower Agora and
• the Gate of Eumenes
At foot of Acropolis
Sanctuary of Asclepius
Three kilometers south of the Acropolis, down in the valley, there was the Sanctuary of Asclepius (also known as the Asclepium), the god of healing. The Ascelpium was approached along an 820 meter colonnaded sacred way. In this place people with health problems could bathe in the water of the sacred spring, and in the patients' dreams Asclepius would appear in a vision to tell them how to cure their illness. Archeology has found lots of gifts and dedications that people would make afterwards, such as small terracotta body parts, no doubt representing what had been healed.Galen, the most famous doctor in the ancient Roman Empire and personal physician of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, worked in the Ascelpium for many years. Notable extant structures in the Asclepium include:
• the Roman theater
• the North Stoa
• the South Stoa
• the Temple of Asclepius
• a circular treatment center (sometimes known as the Temple of Telesphorus)
• a healing spring
• an underground passageway
• a library
• the Via Tecta (or the Sacred Way, which is a colonnaded street leading to the sanctuary) and
• a propylon
Serapis Temple
Pergamon's other notable structure is the great temple of the Egyptian gods Isis and/or Serapis, known today as the "Red Basilica" (or Kızıl Avlu in Turkish), about one kilometer south of the Acropolis. It consists of a main building and two round towers within an enormous temenos or sacred area. The temple towers flanking the main building had courtyards with pools used for ablutions at each end, flanked by stoas on three sides. At this temple in the year 92 Saint Antipas, the first bishop of Pergamum ordained by John the Apostle, was a victim of an early clash between Serapis worshipers and Christians. An angry mob is said to have burned Saint Antipas alive inside a Brazen Bull incense burner, which represented the bull god Apis. In the 1st century AD, the Christian Church at Pergamon inside the main building of the Red Basilica was one of the Seven Churches to which the Book of Revelation was addressed.
You can buy delicious Pegamon cheese from one of the local shops.