Pergamum Pictures

Here are some pictures, as promised:


This is the Temple of Trajan, located on the very top of the acropolis in Pergamum. "Acropolis" means high city, so this whole city was built on the top of a hill. In its hey-day, there were probably 100,000 people living there.

Here you can see how they built the foundations of the city. You want to have some flat areas in the city, so they had to move a lot of rock and dirt and build these supporting walls.

I thought the best part of the city was the theater. It was huge, seating 10,000 people. But even more than that, it was incredibly steep--vertigo inducing. It was such an awesome view. From the top of the hill you can see the surrounding countryside.

This is near the entrance to the acropolis. In the background you can see the modern-day city of Bergama. It was nice to tour these ruins because they're not nearly as popular as other places in Turkey. I only saw about 5 other people there while I was exploring the city.

The Red Basillica, also known as the Church at Pergamum, one of the 7 Churches of The Revelation of John. Apparently the people worshiped some Egyptian gods (gods of healing)...and it's called "Satan's throne." Fun times...

This is the market area leading into the asclepieion (the hospital). Imagine vendors on either side of this long street. The hill in the background is where the acropolis is located. You can see the theather pretty well.

More of the hospital. There was a sacred spring here and people would come from all over to be healed of their sicknesses.

I'll post more pictures later!

Now it's appropriate to say, "have a good Sunday!"