Pergamon

A good portion of the day today was spent in commute, but the highlight of our day was the visit to Pergamon. I can't honestly say that I knew much about Pergamon before this visit. I knew it was mentioned in the Bible a few times, but I did not realize it was such a beautiful and important city. Apparently, the Germans liked it so much that they carted off a lot of the city's treasures to Berlin.

The first site we visited this morning was a famous ancient hospital called Asklepion. This is the place where Galen practiced. This hospital is known for the holistic methods it employed. At one spot there was a long underground tunnel that the patient would walk through. As the patient was walking through, the doctors would be pouring steaming water laced with opium through the tunnel. How's that for effective treatment methods? This hospital recognized the connection between a healthy body and a healthy soul. The theatre at the hospital only preformed comedies for this very reason.

After visiting the hospital we went up to the acropolis. The views were amazing, I completely understand why people would want to worship gods in that place. The highest temple was dedicated to the emperor Trajan. It is very interesting that they put the emperors temple above Zeus or Athena's temple. Of course only ruins remain of these temples now, but even the smallest imagination could conjure up images of Pergamon. It's easy to understand why the Bible describes this place as the devil's throne on earth.

In an ironic twist of events, it was the technological sophistication that killed the people on the acropolis. A big problem for any city is finding a reliable water source. The acropolis in Pergamon brought in their water via aqueduct, which was all well and good until they decided to piece the structure together with lead. They did not realize it, but they were poisoning the water. The average man died around 40 years old thanks to this poison well. Galen himself lived until his 70s. Perhaps he wad not living on the acropolis?

Pergamon was home to one of the world's largest libraries. It was so grand that when Cleopatra visited she became jealous and prevented the expiration of papyrus to Pergamon. Since the people lacked a proper writing medium they decided to invent their own. Their invention was called parchment, and it was basically s thin dried animal skin. This invention was revolutionary because it allowed people to write on both sides of the paper.

After the acropolis we visited the Red Basilica. There isn't too much to say about it other than it was a huge brick structure that used to be a place to worship the Egyptian gods. It was later a church and then converted into a mosque. Now it is a ruin which is currently under renovation. The inside reminded me a lot of the Pantheon because it had a dome roof with a hole in the ceiling. There were birds flying around making nests in the wall, and the effect was rather erie.