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BERGAMA |
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Frequently touted as a day-trip from Ayvalak, BERGAMA is the site of
the Hellenistic - and later Roman - city of Pergamon, ruled for several
centuries by a powerful local dynasty. Excavations were completed here
in 1886, but unfortunately much of what was found has since been carted
off to Germany. However, the acropolis of Eumenes II remains a major
attraction, and there are a host of lesser sights and an old quarter of
chaotic charm.
The old town lies at the foot of the acropolis, about ten minutes' walk
from the bus station. Its foremost attraction is the Kizil Avlu or "Red
Basilica" (daily 8.30am-5.30pm; $2), a huge edifice on the river not far
from the acropolis, originally built as a temple to the Egyptian god
Osiris and converted to a basilica by the early Christians, when it was
one of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor addressed by St John in the Book
of Revelation. Crumbling but still impressive, it houses a mosque in one
of its towers. The area around the basilica is a jumble of ramshackle
buildings, carpet and antique shops, mosques and maze-like streets.
South along the main street is the Archeological Museum (Tues-Sun
8.30am-6pm; $2), which has a large collection of locally unearthed booty,
including a statue of Hadrian from the Asclepion , and busts of Zeus and
Socrates along with a model of the Zeus altar, complete with the reliefs
that are now in Berlin. Bergama has a particularly good hamam , the Haci
Hekim , Bankalar Cad 32: $5 gets you a bath, $9 the full works.
The Acropolis (daily 9am-5/7pm; $4), the ancient city of the kings of
Pergamon, is set on top of a rocky bluff towering over modern Bergama.
Taking a short cut through the old town still means an uphill walk of
around half-an-hour. By taxi, the ride costs $10 or more; a taxi-tour
around all Bergama's sights costs about $15-20. The first main
attraction on the acropolis is the huge horseshoe-shaped Altar of Zeus ,
built during the reign of Eumenes II to commemorate his father's victory
over the Gauls, and formerly decorated with reliefs depicting the battle
between the giants and the gods. Even today its former splendour is
apparent, though it has been much diminished by the removal of the
reliefs to Berlin. North of the Zeus altar lie the sparse remains of a
Temple of Athena , above which loom the restored columns of the Temple
of Trajan , where the deified Roman emperor and his successor Hadrian
were revered in the imperial era. From the Temple of Athena a narrow
staircase leads down to the theatre, the most spectacular part of the
ruined acropolis, capable of seating ten thousand spectators, and a
Temple of Dionysos , just off-stage to the northwest. Lower down the
hill and less well-marked - but just as impressive - are the remains of
the Gymnasium where the city's children were educated.
Bergama's other significant archeological site is the Asclepion (daily
8.30am-6.30pm; $4), a Greco-Roman medical centre which can be reached on
foot from the road beginning at the Kurzunlu Camii in the modern town.
Much of what can be seen today was built during the first- and
second-century heyday of the centre, when its function was similar to
that of the nineteenth-century spa. The main features are a Propylon or
monumental entrance gate, built during the third century AD, and a
circular Temple of Asclepios , dating from 150 AD and modelled on the
Pantheon in Rome. At the western end of the northern colonnade is a
theatre seating 3500, while at the centre of the open area a sacred
fountain still gushes mildly radioactive drinking water, near to which
an underground passage leads to the two-storey circular Temple of
Telesphorus .
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