Pergamon Acropolis

The dramatic hilltop acropolis of Pergamon rivals Athens. Home to one of antiquity's greatest libraries (200,000 scrolls), a stunning theatre carved into the hillside, and the Asclepion healing center where wine was prescribed as medicine.

What to do there

6 things to do

1. 1 Stand Where 200,000 Scrolls Were Held Hostage by Egypt History · Free

   The library ruins sit just north of the Sanctuary of Athena. What remains looks modest — a foundation, some column drums. What happened here rewrote how civilization stores knowledge.

   Where: The Library of Pergamon ruins, on the northern Acropolis plateau adjacent to the Sanctuary of Athena (39.1335, 27.1850). Walk north from the Athena Temple platform — the reading room foundation (13.5 x 16 meters) is visible, shelving recesses still in the walls.

   What: This was the second-greatest library in the ancient world — 200,000 scrolls at its peak, built by King Eumenes II around 200 BC. When Eumenes wanted to expand it, the Egyptian Ptolemies panicked. They banned all papyrus exports to Pergamon — the ancient equivalent of cutting off the internet. Pergamon's response? They didn't blink. They industrialized the production of writing on animal skin instead. So thorough was this pivot that the English word 'parchment' still bears Pergamon's name: from Latin *pergamenum*, meaning 'of Pergamon.' Every manuscript copied in medieval Europe for the next 1,200 years — Bibles, legal codes, medical texts — was written on a material invented because a king in this city refused to lose a library war. The punchline: according to Plutarch, Mark Antony eventually seized the entire 200,000-scroll collection and gave it to Cleopatra as a wedding gift — to compensate for scrolls lost in a fire at Alexandria. Historians debate whether this actually happened. What's not in debate: this hilltop was worth fighting over at the highest levels of Roman power.

   How: Included in the site entry ticket (~€15 for foreigners). No separate charge. Stand in the reading room foundation and look south toward the altar base — Eumenes II built both in the same decade.

   Backup: Even if signage is limited, the Athena Sanctuary platform is unmissable. The library is the four-walled foundation immediately to its north.

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2. 2 Sit in the World's Steepest Theater and Look Down Into Nothing Adventure · Price: moderate

   80 steps from stage to top, 36 meters of vertical drop, a 70-degree incline. No other ancient theater anywhere was built like this — because no one else had a hillside steep enough to try.

   Where: The Theater of Pergamon, carved into the southwest face of the Acropolis hill (39.1318, 27.1833). Descend from the library plateau toward the hillside — you'll hear the wind before you see the drop.

   What: The steepest ancient theater ever built — approximately 70 degrees, 10,000 spectators, 80 steps from the orchestra floor to the topmost row. It was so steep that a permanent stone stage would have blocked the city view entirely, so the architects built a detachable wooden stage — assembled for performances, taken down afterward. Audiences watched Euripides and Sophocles here with the entire Aegean plain spread below them like a map, the sea a thin line on the horizon. Sit in the highest row. Look down at the orchestra level. Then look out. The Romans who sat here in the 2nd century AD were watching plays in a theater that made the one at Epidaurus feel flat. This was theater as vertigo.

   How: Included in the combined site entry ticket (~€15 for foreigners). Cable car (teleferik) reaches the upper Acropolis: ~500₺ one-way / 800₺ return for foreigners. Best approach: take the cable car up, walk down through the ruins to the lower theater, then exit at the foot of the hill (a driver can meet you). This way you walk WITH gravity through 2,300 years of history.

   Backup: If cable car is closed (maintenance days), a narrow road winds up to the site — taxi up, walk down still works perfectly.

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3. 3 Find the Altar Base That the Book of Revelation Called Satan's Throne History · Free

   The Altar of Zeus at Pergamon was so magnificent that it earned a mention in the New Testament — and so coveted that German archaeologists stripped it to the foundations and built a museum in Berlin to house it. The base is still here.

   Where: The Altar of Zeus terrace, below the Athena Sanctuary on the Acropolis (39.1320, 27.1838). It's the broad stepped foundation south of the library — hard to miss because of its scale even stripped bare.

   What: Built by Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BC, this altar was approximately 36 meters wide and 34 meters deep. Its carved frieze — the Gigantomachy, Gods versus Giants — was the most ambitious sculptural program the Hellenistic world had ever attempted. Three ancient lists included it among the Seven Wonders of the World. In Revelation 2:13, Christ addresses the early Christian church at Pergamon with the words: 'I know where you live — where Satan's throne is.' Most scholars believe Satan's throne refers to this altar, or to the temple of Emperor Augustus built here in 29 BC (the first imperial cult temple in all of Asia Minor). Pergamon was famous above all for its pagan religious intensity — temples to Zeus, Athena, Dionysus, and Asclepius all crowded this hilltop. What happened to the altar: German engineer Carl Humann began excavations in 1878 under an agreement with the Ottoman government. By 1886, the entire relief frieze and reconstructable elements had been shipped to Berlin. The Pergamon Museum was built specifically to house them in 1930. The base you're standing on is what remains: the bones after the flesh was removed. Turkey formally requested repatriation in recent years. In 2023, a senior German official publicly suggested it should return.

   How: Included in the site ticket. No separate charge. The altar base is open-air and accessible throughout site hours.

   Backup: Even without formal signage in English, the stepped platform is unmistakable. The emptiness IS the story.

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4. 4 Walk the Underground Tunnel Where Ancient Psychiatry Was Invented History · Price: moderate

   The Asclepion was not a temple. It was the world's most advanced healing center — part hospital, part spa, part psychiatric ward. Patients slept in underground tunnels listening to the sound of sacred water. The spring they drank from turned out to be mildly radioactive.

   Where: The Asclepion of Pergamon, 1.6 km northwest of the city center (39.1191, 27.1661). Take a taxi or 15-minute walk from the Acropolis. Entry is covered by the combined Bergama ticket (~€15 for foreigners, or Museum Pass Turkey). Hours match the Acropolis: 08:30–17:30 winter, 19:00 summer.

   What: Founded in the 4th century BC around a sacred spring. Galen — born in Pergamon in 129 AD — built his entire early reputation here, first as physician to the gladiators of the High Priest of Asia. He won the appointment by challenging rival physicians to repair the intestines of an eviscerated ape. When they all declined, he did it himself. During his time as gladiator surgeon: 5 deaths, versus 60 under his predecessor. He called their wounds 'windows into the body.' He would go on to become personal physician to Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and his medical writings would dominate Western medicine for 1,300 years. The Kryptoporiktus: Walk through the 70-meter underground tunnel where patients slept in cubicles and listened to sacred water dripping from above. Chemical analysis of the sacred spring later revealed it was slightly radioactive. Patients also underwent mud baths, herbal treatments, therapeutic theater performances, and dream interpretation by priests — the world's first structured psychological therapy program. Marcus Aurelius himself visited this site seeking cures.

   How: Allow 1 hour for the Asclepion. The underground tunnel is the centerpiece — walk it slowly. The Via Tecta (sacred colonnaded road from the lower city) still leads to the entrance gate where ancient doctors first examined incoming patients.

   Backup: If the tunnel is closed for restoration, the sacred spring and theater are still accessible. The spring still flows.

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5. 5 Count the Religions Sharing One Building at the Red Basilica History · Free

   A Roman temple to Egyptian gods, converted to a Christian basilica, with a working mosque in one tower and Hebrew inscriptions in the walls. This is the one building on earth where four major religious traditions occupy the same stones simultaneously.

   Where: The Red Basilica (Kızıl Avlu), in the lower town of Bergama, where the ancient city meets the modern street grid (39.1219, 27.1833). The Selinus River runs directly under the building through two massive Roman-era vaulted tunnels — still flowing. The building straddles the river.

   What: Built by Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD as a temple to the Egyptian gods Serapis, Isis, Harpocrates, and Osiris — a remarkable choice for a Greco-Roman city. So large that when the Byzantines converted it to a Christian basilica, they didn't have to modify the main hall: it just became a nave. The two cylindrical rotunda towers became chapels. One tower is now a functioning mosque. Hebrew stone tablets found in the precinct confirm a Jewish community also used this holy ground. Pergamon is identified in Revelation 2 as one of the Seven Churches of Asia — meaning early Christians gathered here even while the altar of Zeus stood on the hill above them.

   How: Entry included in the combined Bergama site ticket. Walk from the city center — the structure is unmissable, its red brick walls rising above the surrounding streets. The mosque tower receives visitors during prayer hours — be respectful of timing.

   Backup: Even if the interior is partially closed, the exterior scale and the river tunnels visible at ground level make this worthwhile. Free to photograph from the street.

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6. 6 Taste the Aegean Grape That Ancient Pergamon Traded Across the Mediterranean Wine · Price: moderate · Optional

   The Aegean coast around Izmir was producing wine when Pergamon was young. Modern Turkish winemakers are pulling those same ancient varieties back from obscurity — and the results are unlike anything else in European wine.

   Where: The Urla Wine Trail (Urla Bağ Yolu), approximately 100 km south of Bergama on the road back toward Izmir. The trail clusters 10 wineries around the town of Urla on the Aegean peninsula. A 90-minute detour from the Pergamon–Izmir route.

   What: The Aegean coast was one of the ancient world's great wine corridors — Pergamon, Ephesus, Smyrna all sat on trade routes where wine moved alongside grain and olive oil. Dionysus was among the Attalid dynasty's patron cults. Amphora fragments from the Roman period confirm Pergamon was producing and exporting wine. Modern winemakers here are recovering something genuinely lost: Turkey has 1,200 native grape varieties — one of the most diverse wine-growing countries on earth. On the Urla trail, ask specifically for: - **Urla Karası**: deep local red, grown only here - **Bornova Misketi**: a fragrant aromatic white native to this stretch of Aegean coast Best stops: **Urla Winery (Urla Sarapcilik)** — hourly tours until 17:00, tasting ~200₺/person; **Urlice** — professional tasting-only setup, no food but serious wine; **USCA** — daily 10:00–18:00, relaxed atmosphere.

   How: Book directly by phone or email before arriving (Turkish wine trail wineries appreciate advance notice). Most cluster within walking distance of each other near Urla town center. If traveling by car, one designated driver and one taster is the practical approach — taxis between wineries are available.

   Backup: If heading directly to Izmir without the Urla detour, ask at any wine bar in Izmir's Alsancak neighborhood for Urla Karası or Bornova Misketi by name — both are stocked widely in Izmir. The story of Pergamon's role in the ancient wine trade is the right opener when the glass arrives.

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