Day 11: Saturday 8 October - Pergamum and the Asclepion

A leisurely breakfast stocked us up for our visit to Pergamum and the Asclepion, a two hour drive from Selcuk. With us to day was our delightfully eloquent and informative guide, Sevim, a retired school teacher and director of Wonder Tours who like Guray, brought our imaginations into play and re-created ancient history with verve and humour.

Passing Izmir on the outskirts, a great city full of low rise apartment blocks, we reached the shores of the Aegean, flat and waveless, and bordered in places by industry. Large refineries process oil brought by shipping tanker from Iran, Iraq and Russia and a great metal recycling factory unfortunately are blights on the landscape, creating air pollution, acid rain and dryness in an area once extensively cultivated.

Pergamum is wondrous. Perched high on the mountain above present day Bergama, the
sheer size of the temples, the theatre overlooking the green slopes of the hills across the valley and the ingenuity of their creators are mind-boggling. Its first inhabitant were the Aeolian Greeks who settled here in the 8th century BC. It flourished under the rule of Eumenes I who ruled from 263-241 BC. During his time, Pergamum was one of the greatest centres of learning in the world. Attulus III bequeathed the kingdom of Pergamum to Rome in 133 BC and it became the capital of the Roman province of Asia.


Most inspiring is the Temple of Trajan, built of white marble in the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian II and used to worship them and Zeus, the god of Thunder. The temple is supported on huge sturdy arches to gain level ground for its foundations. The library once held 200 000 parchment scrolls which were sent to the library at Alexandria by Mark Anthony as a wedding gift to Cleopatra.


After lunch we spent about 45 minutes in the region of the Red Basilica, an enormous and glorious building, originally a temple to the Egyptian gods Serapis, Isis and Harpocrates in the 2nd century AD. St John described it in the Book of Revelations as one of the seven churches of the Apocalypse and the throne of the devil.


The displays of carpets at the shops across the road enticed us in and some of our group went home with beautiful reminders of their time in Turkey!

Once world renowned as a healing centre, the Asclepion fascinated us. Its most
famous physician, Galen, was born in Pergamum, studied in Alexandria, Greece and Asia Minor and then became physician to Pergamum's gladiators. Treatments at the centre included massage, mud baths, healing waters, ointments and herbs, dream analysis and suggestion. We were shown the holes in the roof of the tunnel leading to the sleeping quarters where it is reputed that the doctors spoke down to their unwitting patients as if they were gods. We were told that only patients bound to be “cured” were admitted to the hospital, which flourished for over a 1000 years – the seriously ill were turned away!

We had elected to spend us much time as we could in Bergama so we had a long wait at Izmir airport for our 10.30 flight to Istanbul, which took all of 45 minutes. It was raining in Istanbul - and cold - and we were grateful to find our driver waiting for us. Upon arrival at the Grand Washington Hotel we had drama when one of our group discovered that he had lost his passport – which thankfully was located at the lost property office at Ataturk Airport and retrieved the next day. Our grateful thanks to Erdal for the effort he went to to find the lost document.

Charmaine's reflections:

For me Pergamum and the Asclepion were highlights and spectacular locations. Our guide, Sevim, truly brought 3000 years of history alive. Again it's barely comprehensible to imagine pulling mountainous marble steps to the top of a high hill as temples and aqueducts, libraries and secret passages, fountains and tombs took shape over the centuries. To have walked the same road as Alexander the Great (without the “hail the conqueror' salute!) is indeed peculiar. As Viv said, layers upon layers of civilization, history, unearthed, with aeons more to be discovered is very humbling.

Day 7: Tuesday 5 October - Perge and Aspendos

A slightly later start to today – 8am! Ray wrote up the following:“


Set out by bus and joined by our guide Achmet, who led us through some of the most significant archaeological sites with a fact-filled commentary along the way. The sites included the theatre and the town centre (agora) at Perge, its main road with colonnades, public baths and water reticulation system. The highlight of the day was perhaps the enormous and impressive theatre at Aspendos, largely restored using original materials, and in which performances are still being staged.

After lunch we stopped at the Koprulu waterfall which is in a nature reserve and the more energetic amongst us climbed down umpteen stairs to the base of the falls- a
very pretty area.

Finally, we stopped at the well-know “Alice” leather works and were entertained by a glamorous fashion show and were given the opportunity to purchase leather garments.”

Perge was once near the sea, which is now about 11 kms away. It was one of the most important towns of ancient Pamphylia, had its heyday under the Romans in the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC and surrendered to Alexander the Great in 334 BC. It declined in Byzantine times and was abandoned in the 7th century.


Aspendos was once the eastern most city of the kingdom of Pergamum and an important trading centre in Roman times. The magnificent theatre was built during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180) and can seat 12 000 people. It is said to be the best preserved theatre of the ancient world. It was restored in the 13th Century and after several centuries of neglect was brought to life again by Ataturk.

The remains of the Roman aqueduct nearby once again left us awed by ancient ingenuity and skill and led to a profound discussion on engineering, Rob from Ghana being a civil engineer!

Before lunch we also visited the quaint village of Side (“pomegranate”) which is
surrounded by Roman ruins and boasts the Temples of Apollo and Athena on its shores, dating from the 2nd century. Perfect photo opportunities! Side was first settled by Greek colonists in the 7th century BC and became a centre of the slave trade and piracy in the 2nd century BC. It was burned by Arab raiders in the 7th century, revitalised by the Seljuks and resettled by Muslims returning from Crete during the population exchange of the 1920s.

My mom and I hoped to have a swim below the harbour walls when we returned to Antalya but the sea was very choppy so instead we had a lovely start to the evening watching the sundowner boats see-sawing (sea-sawing?!) out of the harbour. After supper a few of us went down to see the harbour lit up and browsed through the shops in the narrow streets in the vicinity of the hotel.

Charmaine's reflections on Antalya:Exceptionally modern merged in ancient. A sleepy-time warped town now a centre of tourism and light industry. A delightful place. Kekova Island and beyond can only be reached by boat or on foot. Magic place to escape to some time! St Nicholas Church a place for devout pilgrims and despite the crowds of followers it felt very special to be there. The theatre nearby and the beautiful tumbled marble carving and statuettes- magical!