Pergamon (Bergama)

Pergamon (modern Bergama), 100 kilometres north of İzmir, was the capital of one of the greatest kingdoms of the Hellenistic world, ruled by the Attalid dynasty from the third to the first century BCE. The acropolis above the modern town contains the ruins of the royal palace, temples, a library that once rivalled Alexandria's, and the most dramatic ancient theatre in Turkey — carved into the hillside at an almost vertiginous angle.

The lower city contains the Asclepion, an ancient health spa and medical centre that was famous throughout the Roman world. From İzmir, buses to Bergama run from the Otogar (bus terminal) in about two hours. The acropolis is best reached by cable car (teleferik) from the town. Allow a full day.

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The Altar of Zeus from Pergamon — one of the great monuments of Hellenistic art — was excavated by German archaeologists in the 1870s and shipped entirely to Berlin, where it remains in the Pergamon Museum. The Turkish government has been requesting its return since the 1970s. The empty terrace where the altar stood on the acropolis above Bergama is still visitable, and the scale of the platform gives some sense of what was taken.

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