Pergamon Acropolis

The Pergamon Acropolis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site perched on a 335-metre hilltop above Bergama town in İzmir province, western Turkey. As the capital of the Attalid kingdom from approximately 282 to 133 BC, Pergamon became one of the most significant cultural and intellectual centres of the Hellenistic world, home to a library of 200,000 volumes that rivalled Alexandria and a tradition of parchment production — the word 'parchment' derives from 'Pergamon.' The site was later absorbed into the Roman Empire and continued to develop through the 3rd century AD.

The acropolis is reached by a cable car (teleferik) from the lower town, arriving at the site's western perimeter from which paths lead across the hilltop to the major monuments. The Temple of Trajan (2nd century AD) stands at the highest point, with its columns and epistyle partially restored to give a clear sense of the original scale. Below the temple, the Hellenistic theatre — carved into the steep hillside with a dramatic 36-degree rake — is the steepest ancient theatre known, with 78 rows of seats descending from top to bottom. The theatre's backdrop opens directly onto a sweeping panorama of the Bergama plain and the distant Aegean.

The foundations of the Great Altar of Pergamon are visible as a large terrace below the theatre; the altar itself was excavated by German archaeologist Carl Humann in the 1870s and transported to Berlin, where it is displayed in the Pergamon Museum. This removal remains a contentious diplomatic issue between Turkey and Germany.

The lower city contains the Asclepion — a separate archaeological zone at the base of the hill — which served as one of antiquity's most famous healing sanctuaries, where patients underwent treatments including dream therapy, herbal medicine, and symbolic rituals beside a sacred spring. Visiting both the Acropolis and the Asclepion in a day is recommended; the Bergama Archaeological Museum in town houses finds not removed to Berlin.