Beautiful on top of the Mountain!
(Bergama – Izmir – Istanbul)
Breakfast wasn’t the best this morning. The hard boiled egg wasn’t ‘hard-boiled’- I swear a chicken winked at me. That said it was nice to sit in the sun in the restaurant admiring the snow covered hills in the background. We are both sore around our necks (presumably from the seatbelts) & I have a beauty of a bruise on my right elbow. I really don’t know why it’s called the funny bone-because it isn’t funny. I hope Emre is feeling better-poor guy is sick and now will be sore after the accident.
Temple of Trajan at Pergamon
We went up the hill to the Acropolis of Pergamon and were awestruck with the view of the entire valley-lakes, the dam, flood plains, mountains, & the modern day city of Bergama- scenery made for postcards. The site itself was awesome as well- capped with the excavated Temple of Trajan. There were 2 other temples in the acropolis too- the temple of Athena which is marked with an olive tree and the altar of Zeus which is marked with 2 oak trees.
The actual altar was taken back to Germany by the archaeologists who excavated the site. It’s sad that this treasure hasn’t been returned back to its homeland. Also saw the remains of the Library around the agora at the acropolis (2nd biggest in history).
Afterwards we went back down the hill to the Red Bascilica. This site was originally an Egyptian Temple (busts to prove) that was converted to a church & later part of it into a Mosque. The oculus in the remaining dome was spectacular also- perhaps modeled the one in Rome. There was a lot of Hebrew inscriptions at the site also-Emre said it was because of the plurality of the city.
The Killim
After the Basilica, we made our way to a carpet/killim workshop outside of Bergama. This workshop is run as a co-op that provides jobs for some 1000 local women. we got to see how the dyes are made, how the silk is spun and the ladies using the looms to make the carpets/killims. Being in another carpet shop, we felt the pressure- such beautiful works that also help the women of the area. In the end, we caved and bought a real nice killim. Now we have to lug a mat around everywhere we go! But it’s worth it! At the workshop we had lunch also- Turkish pizza. It was great but I have had reflux ever since.
We then made our way to Izmir to see our final site that is Smyrna. It was another young excavation in the heart of this bustling metropolis. The site looked like a big jigsaw puzzle but had a number of bellow the surface archways that formed the agora there. The local government is committed to this site and is buying and demolishing the surrounding buildings to enlarge the site. This is another one that I have to visit again in a few years.
That’s our 7 churches tour done (minus a church). It has been quite the adventure but definitely worth it. We got back to Izmir airport, said our good-byes to Emre and managed to get onto an early plane back to Istanbul. The downside however, is that a lot of the planes to Istanbul are delayed-one by 2.5 hrs! Might be a long evening!
Well, our plane was only 1.5hrs late and so we got to the Hotel Pen around 10pm. We bought some food & drink, relaxed a little and I repacked my bag to fit the killim. I might just get fed up of it by the end!
