Pergamom

Yet another damn Zeus temple, Pergamom

Just in case you weren't getting sick of ruins, here's another post about them! This time it's the city of Pergamom which I visited yesterday. Karen obviously decided she had something against me that day. There were a few things I wanted to see in and around the modern town of Bergama. The acropolis, the main attraction, I found by myself without any problems because signs were everywhere. Obviously Karen took offense to my taking the initiative and proceeded to mess up all her directions for the other things I wanted to see. Firstly, when I followed her directions to the archaeological museum I ended up on a random street with nothing resembling a museum in sight (I later found out that it was about 100 metres further down than she said ıt was). Her directions to the Asklepion led me to a tiny intersection in the middle of a tangle of narrow, one-way streets. If you'll remember back to my Epidauros post, an Asklepion was a kind of day spa cum hotel cum hospital, usually located in a calming, peaceful location out in the country. This did not resemble such a place at all.

The view from the Pergamom Acropolis

And finally, selecting the other museum Karen offered me, she led me all the way around the town and into a razor-wire surrounded military base! The gun toting soldiers politely but firmly told me I was way off. After that adventure I managed to find all the locations by myself.

Ancient road to the Asclepeion

Okay, onto the history: fırst the Acropolis. Interestingly, this Acropolis could be reached via gondola (think skiing. A venetian gondola could prove difficult). That would have been a nice addition for the grueling Corinth Acropolis! This, like all the Acropolises of these kinds of cities, represent the religious, cultural and political heart of the city. Pergamom was another very important city in this part of the world - another one originally settled by the greeks and later taken over by the romans. Perhaps Pergamom's biggest claim to fame was the enormous altar - 36 by 34 metres in size. It's thought that it was commissioned by king Eumenes II to commemorate his victories against Pergamom's enemies and making Pergamom all-round awesome. It's not certain to which God the altar was dedicated, but it was probably Athena as she had the biggest, comfiest, nicest temple on the Acropolis. However, it's also often attributed to Zeus (as if he doesn't have enough nice thing already). All the pieces of it were put back together and now it's in the museum of Berlin, but they had a nice wooden model of it in the local museum. I would also like to add that some ancient historians considered this one of the 7 ancient wonders, so that means I've been to the site of 5 of them!

Grounds of the Asclepeion

When I finally found it (without Karen's help), I was also very intrigued by the Asklepeion. The actual site was certainly quite pretty and tranquil. Supposedly it was founded by a dude called Archias who was injured while hunting one day and brought to the Asclepeion (yes I know I keep changing the spelling) in Epidauros. He was so impressed by his recovery there that he was prompted to build one himself. In it's day it was the most advanced medical centre possibly in the world.