Pergamum

---

25 September 2012

Every Turkish village seems to have a mosque, there are several in each town and cities have many. Consequently Wendy and most of the party were awakened at 6.00 by the call to prayer. Its probably something we shall have to get used to.

The reason for coming to Bergama is that it is close to one of the major ancient sites in Turkey, Pergamum. Pergamum is divided into three separate areas. On a memorable day in the company of Tim and Ann, Ali our cheerful taxi driver took us to all of them and showed us a back street restaurant where we had an excellent buffet lunch. In moving around we had some exciting times making our way along steep narrow streets in the old town.

First we drove up to the hill top Roman Acropolis including the marble columned Temple of Trajan, the steep 10,000 seat theatre built into the hillside and some superb mosaics.

Next it was the Red Basilica, a 2^nd century giant redbrick temple to the Egyption gods Serapis, Isis and Harpocrates. Later the Christians built a round basilica inside it.

Finally after lunch we walked around Ascelion an ancient medical centre.

---