The modern city may well be impressive with its battalion of skyscrapers, but something about seeing ancient structures still awes any traveler. In Turkey, an abundance of these ancient sites can be enjoyed.
The Pergamon Ruins lies in Mysia, which is 26 km from the Aegean Sea. An ancient city of Greece in modern Turkey, the ruins attracts many visitors each year, as the structures exhibit the great skills of the masons back then. The city is quite famous, and seeing the ruins will show that the place lives up to the hype.
The place is steeped in a rich history, and people can re-imagine what transpired here by going on tours to the site. The Pergamon Ruins has witnessed the ancient wars, and now stand as silent testaments to the events that shaped the kingdom. When Attalus III Philometer, the ruler, died in 133 BC, the city was relinquished to Rome. The city flourished under the Roman empire. It is also recorded that Antipas, the first bishop of Pergamon, was made a martyr here in ca. 92 AD.
The Pergamon Ruins stands on top of a hill that overlooks Bergama, a Turkish city. The strategic location of the city made it easier to defend the city, thus allowing Lysimachus, a Macedonian general, as storage for his loot in the 4th century BCE.
There are several notable structures in the Pergamon Ruins. Among these, is the Hellenistic Theater, which boasts of a seating capacity of about 10,000. The Trajaneum and the Sanctuary of Athena are also part of the complex. The Library or the Athenaeum also played an integral part in history, as the inhabitants of Pergamon came up with new substance for codices when there was a shortage of papyrus.
Today, large columns, archways and other stone structures are still testament to great masonry. Going to the Pergamon Ruins feels like attending a history class, only this one is a field trip.