Bergama was known as Pergamon, supposedly where they invented parchment. They had a huge library, that Anthony handed to Cleopatra as a marriage gift. There it existed for ages. I had the text here "until Caliph Omar conquered Egypt and had it destroyed" but retract that now. See at the comments at the bottom of this page. I just keep that part in because else the comments would be incomprehensible. I may edit it all out later.
The city is very old, so lots of ruins. I am not much of an archeologist, but with the help of the good drawings along the way to or from the Acropolis (high city) you get an impression of what an enormous and -ly rich city this must have been. If you are not hindered by transport I advise you to go all the way down on foot, from site to site, do not follow the road. Nowadays it is somewhat less impressive, but still one of those places I keep returning to.
I added pictures of the Asklepion, a "health resort" at the other side of town, that I had on slides. On February 22th also some of the city and the (ascent to) akropolis. In the days after that some more. Comments will have to wait until all are in.
BERGAMA
Bergama, eskiden Pergamon olarak bilinirmiş, söylendiğine göre parşömen burada bulunmuş. Anthony’nin Kleopatra’ya düğün hediyesi olarak verdiğ çok büyük bir kütüphane, asırlar boyunca buradaydı. Elimdeki metinde “Halife Ömer, Mýsýr’ı fethedip, kütüphaneyi yıkana kadar” diyor, ama şimdi bunu geri alıyorum. Bu sayfanın aşağısındaki yorumlara bakın. Aşağıdaki açıklamaların analşlabilir olması için o bölümü silmiyorum. Belki daha sonra hepsini birden silerim.
Şehir çok eski ve sonuç olarak birçok kalıntı var. Ben arkeolog değlim, ama Acropolis (yüksek şehir) yolu boyunca gördüğünüz güzel çizimler sayesinde, burada ne kadar muazzam ve zengin bir şehir kurulmuş olduğnu hissediyorsunuz. Engeliniz yoksa, anayolu takip etmek yerine, bölgeden bölgeye gezerek tüm yolu yürümenizi öneririm. Bugünlerde cazibesini biraz yitirmeye başladı, ama hala sürekli gittiğim yerlerden biri.
İlçenin diğer tarafındaki Asklepion “Kaplýca”sının resimlerini de bir ara galeriye eklemeyi zihnimin bir köşesine yazdım.
Türkçe çeviri: Melek Emir. Katkılarından dolayı teşekkür ederim.
I curious to know that. Can you introduce some of the beautiful building.
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful pictures of the city of Bergama. Because of these photos I feel that my impending trip will be benefitted not to 'miss anything" of interest and your photos will certainly supplement my research prior to departure. Thank you again! Kindest regards, Andie Anderson, Dallas, Texas
www.orkunonline.com
Thanks for your photos, once I loved my country.
regards
A.Serdar Argic
Leaving out an "l" you put in but is not in the article I changed accordingly. Sorry, |I think I was thinking of a temple in Rome. The other things I have to look into.
Dick
I visited Pergamon as well (hence, my visit to this site--your pictures are wonderful.)
You list the "sanatorium" or "health resort" as the Serapeum/Serapion. That is incorrect. The correct name was the Askeplion, named after Askeplius, the god of medicine and healing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius
Sorry if I've become such a nuisance.
The general became so popular in Egypt, that when Caliph Omar recalled him from duty, the Egyptians went up in revolt.
Tarek Ibrahim tarek_ibrahim@earthlink.net
An excellent article can be found on the Wikipedia website. Here is the URL, in case you're interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_alexandria
If you are convinced, I'd be extremely grateful if you removed the Caliph Omar reference. These days, we Arabs get enough bad press; I chafe under the accusation that we were responsible for mankind's greatest intellectual loss.
Another two cents, btw...
Caliph Omar never made it to Egypt; it was his general, Amr Ibn al-As who actually wrested Egypt from the Byzantine Empire. The Egyptians, who developed their own "national" form of Christianity (i.e., the Coptic Church) were victim to regular and violent persecution on orders of the Emperor in Constantinople, dedicated to rooting out "heresy." General Amr was more probably hailed as a welcome change than as "rampaging religious fanatic."
Although succeeded centuries would bring far less tolerant Muslim rulers to the peoples of the Nile Valley, it seems unlikely that his was an army that "converted by the sword."
However, an article athttp://www.ehistory.com/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=9 made the Caliph Omar story look like a very dubious tale. Please read the whole story at that location (and let me know if the link is broken: links will probably not last as long as that library).
Dick Osseman
The destruction occured in several phases, primarily under the Romans and the Byzantines. The first major damage occured under Julius Caesar; it was this loss of material that prompted Anthony to loot the library at Pergamon and give it to Cleopatra.
The Library was most probably destroyed during a sack of the city under Emperor Caracalla, or when it was temporarily occupied by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra.
The sister branch of the Library, housed in the Serapeum temple complex, was most probably destroyed by fanatic Christians who sought to destroyed pagan houses of worship after the edict of Theodosius I, which banned worship of the old gods.
By the time the Arabs arrived in Egypt in the mid-seventh century, there was no library left to destroy.
Just my two cents.
Tarek Ibrahim