April 30 – Pergamum and Troy

 Off again this morning for another fairly long drive with a couple of stops for more ancient cities and ruins.

First stop was Pergamum were we visited the acropolis with great views, not a lot of above ground restoration...

but a great arched tunnel that was used as part of the support base for the original building. 

There was also the usual theater that looked out of the plains beyond.

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More Pergamum Acropolis
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Heading back through town was briefly saw the Red Basilica, made of red bricks.  We didn’t stop so don’t have a lot of info on it…just a passing photo.

Then we visited Pergamum Asklepion.  This was a medical treatment center named after Asklipios, the God of Health.  It was the most important medical center in Western Anatolia.  There were treatment rooms, spas,

and a theater for patients.

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More Asklepion
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We also visited Troy, featured in Homer’s The Iliad and the Trojan Wars.  However, Troy was founded in 3000BC so dates to well before the Trojan war.  The history of the city is so extensive that there are 9 major and 3 sub layers with the oldest dating back to the early Bronze Age and the newest from the Byzantine period.  One section had the layers labeled...the depth showing all of the various layers was pretty considerable and they had good timelines to provide information on the layers. 

There was a Temple of Athena,

an incredible citadel wall with "brick" made partially of straw,

a Megaron (a forerunner of the Greek Temple),

 

a ramp,

a palace house,

a sanctuary,

the city wall,

the bouleuterion (council house)

and the South Gate.

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More Troy
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Near the entrance was a Pithos Garden where they stored large vessels called Pithoi.  The vessels are used to store oil, wine and grain.

As a nod to Homer and the Iliad there was a large wooden horse at the entrance. Erdal said it was a prop used in the 2004 movie the Iliad, starring Brad Pitt.  He said it was given as a “peace offering” or consolation prize to Turkey because the movie was filmed in Malta.