"An ancient heritage on the summit."
Pergamon is an ancient city in present-day Bergama, in the province of Izmir, Türkiye, carrying Hellenistic, Roman, Eastern Roman and Ottoman layers one upon another. "Pergamon and its Multi-Layered Cultural Landscape" was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014.
Pergamon appears in written sources from the 5th century BC — Xenophon records staying there in 399 BC. The age that made its name began later, in the 3rd century BC: under the Attalid dynasty founded by Philetaerus around 282 BC, Pergamon became one of the most important cultural centres of the Hellenistic world.
Said by ancient sources to hold some 200,000 scrolls, the Library of Pergamon was Alexandria's greatest rival. The figure comes from Plutarch and is disputed; what is certain is that the library was among the principal gathering places of knowledge in the ancient world.
Writing on treated animal skin was known centuries before Pergamon. But according to a tradition reported by Pliny the Elder, when Egypt restricted the supply of papyrus, the Pergamenes refined and standardised the preparation of skins — and the material took the city's name: Latin pergamena, "of Pergamon".
When Attalus III, the last king of the dynasty, died in 133 BC, he bequeathed his kingdom to Rome in his will. This handover — with few parallels in the ancient world — brought Pergamon under Roman rule without a war.
Rome organised these lands into the province of Asia in 129 BC, and Pergamon became its first seat. Though the administration later moved to Ephesus, the city reached its architectural and artistic height under Roman rule.
Pergamon is one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in the Book of Revelation. The text calls it the place "where Satan's throne is" — whether that points to the Great Altar or to the imperial cult is still debated.
A bishopric in the Middle Ages, the city drew back to its core on the hilltop and sheltered behind walls. Emperor Manuel Komnenos refortified it against the Turkmen raids of the 12th century — one reason the Aegean coast stayed in Eastern Roman hands for centuries longer than the interior.
Lasting Turkish rule began in the town in 1302, with the Karesi beylik.
Bergama passed to the Ottomans shortly after 1341, and gained a many-layered identity as mosques, caravanserais and bathhouses rose amid the ancient remains.
Under the Republic, Bergama took on the identity of a town that protects and presents its ancient inheritance; the Bergama Museum opened in 1936.
A year later the first Bergama Kermesi was held at Atatürk's initiative — the first local festival of its kind in Türkiye — and it has run every June without a break since. The town's many-layered fabric was secured internationally by the UNESCO inscription of 2014.
From the Acropolis to the Asclepion, from the Red Basilica to the Ottoman monuments — the principal sights of the ancient city and of modern Bergama.
Crowning the heights above Bergama, the Pergamon Acropolis holds the steepest surviving theatre of the ancient world. This feat of engineering seats around 10,000 and looks out across the whole valley.
On the same hill stand the re-erected white marble columns of the Temple of Trajan and the remains of one of the greatest libraries of the Hellenistic age.
One of the most celebrated altars of antiquity stood here. Its sculpted friezes, showing the battle of the gods and the giants, were excavated by Carl Humann between 1878 and 1886 and taken to Berlin, where they are displayed in the Pergamonmuseum.
What you see at the Acropolis is the terrace, the foundations and the pines that surround them — the monument itself is no longer on site.
One of the foremost healing centres of antiquity. Tradition holds that an inscription above its gate read: "Death may not enter here." The physician Galen began his career on this site.
Wherever Asclepius is depicted, the same staff is in his hand: straight, plain, with a single snake wound around it. The snake is no accident — an animal that sheds its skin and renews itself is healing made visible. Struck on Bergama's coins, that sign is still the emblem of medicine today. The winged rod with two snakes it gets confused with, the caduceus, belongs to Hermes.
The height of the Acropolis forced the city into some of the most ambitious water engineering of the ancient world. Water drawn from springs on Madra Dağı to the north travelled along a great line of fired-clay pipe segments, crossing the valleys under pressure as an inverted siphon to reach the city on the hill.
Remains of the arched stretches of that line can still be seen around Bergama.
A colossal temple dedicated to gods of Egyptian origin — Serapis and Isis — and one of the most imposing works of Roman brick architecture anywhere in the world. Part of it was converted into a church in the Eastern Roman period.
This slender brick tower, standing since the 14th century, is among the oldest traces of the town's Turkish-Islamic identity. Despite its traditional name it does not date from the Seljuk period but from the age of the beyliks and the early Ottomans, added when an Eastern Roman building was converted into a mosque.
Built in 1399, in the reign of Sultan Bayezid I, the mosque reflects the elegance of early Ottoman architecture and the character the Turks brought to the city.
For centuries the beating heart of the town, the Arasta is a singular trading quarter of narrow lanes and traditional shops where history still breathes inside modern Bergama.
Opened in 1936, the museum brings together finds from the city's Hellenistic, Roman, Eastern Roman and Ottoman layers. Its sculpture, inscriptions and ethnographic collection supply the context for what you see at the Acropolis and the Asclepion.
The kitchen of Bergama sits where the produce of the Kozak highlands meets the olive-oil tradition of the Aegean. Its protected-origin specialities, and the dishes never absent from a local table:
The town's signature dish and a product of protected geographical origin. Its particular balance of spice and its grilling set it apart from the köfte traditions of the surrounding region.
A protected-origin cheese made from the milk of animals grazed on the Kozak highlands and matured in skins. The registration allows sheep's milk or a sheep-and-goat blend. The pasture up there gives it a sharp, unmistakable character.
Another of Bergama's protected-origin products. These nuts underpin the desserts, pilafs and stuffed vegetables of the region — and make the most lasting thing you can carry home from the town.
A pastry particular to Bergama, filled with chickpeas. It is the best-known product of the town's bakery and tradesmen's-restaurant culture, eaten from morning through lunch.
Slender aubergines fried in olive oil, then cooked down with tomato, green pepper and garlic. A summer dish identified directly with Bergama, it takes its name from the sizzle the aubergines make as they fry. Served hot or warm, with yoghurt alongside.
A tart drink pressed from unripe grapes, taken cold against the summer heat and used in the kitchen to sour a dish — the grape country of Kozak, bottled.
Pergamon is not a single fenced ruin but several separate sites spread through and around the modern town. The essentials for planning a visit:
Bergama is a district north of Izmir, roughly 110 km from the city centre, on the Izmir–Çanakkale road. Regular intercity buses run from Izmir.
The Acropolis sits on the hill north of town, the Asclepion to the west, and the Red Basilica and Arasta in the centre. A cable car or a road takes you up to the Acropolis; walking between all three is not practical.
Allow around 2 hours for the Acropolis, 1 hour for the Asclepion and 1–2 hours for the Red Basilica and the town centre. With the Bergama Museum, that makes a full day — it is not a place to rush.
Spring and autumn are the best seasons. There is almost no shade on the Acropolis; in summer, go early in the morning or late in the afternoon, and bring a hat and water. Anyone visiting in June may coincide with the Bergama Kermesi, held every year since 1937.
Admission fees and opening hours may change. For visitor information and the MüzeKart pass, see the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism's museums and archaeological sites portal; for the current price list, the Ministry's DÖSİM fee page.
Yes. Pergamon is the name of the ancient city that stands within modern Bergama, a district of Izmir province in western Türkiye. The name "Bergama" derives directly from Pergamon, and the ancient site and the modern town are woven into one another.
Pergamon was not founded in the 3rd century BC; the city is named in written sources from the 5th century BC, and Xenophon records staying there in 399 BC. What happened in the 3rd century BC was not its founding but its rise to greatness under the Attalid dynasty.
Pergamon is known for a library said by ancient sources to hold 200,000 scrolls, for giving parchment its name, for the Acropolis with the steepest surviving theatre of the ancient world, for the Great Altar whose friezes are now displayed in Berlin, and for the Asclepion, a leading medical centre of antiquity.
The altar's sculpted friezes were excavated by Carl Humann between 1878 and 1886 and taken to Berlin, where they are displayed in the Pergamonmuseum. What remains at Bergama is the terrace on the Acropolis where the altar stood, together with its foundations and the pines that now surround them.
The Acropolis and its ancient theatre, the terrace of the Great Altar, the Asclepion, the ancient aqueduct, the Red Basilica, the Seljuk Minaret, the Great Mosque, the historic Arasta bazaar and the Bergama Museum are the essential sights in Bergama.
Bergama köfte, Bergama tulum cheese and Bergama Kozak pine nuts all carry protected geographical origin status and are the town's best-known specialities. Alongside them, chickpea börek, çığırtma and koruk — a tart drink of unripe grapes — are staples of the local table.
Yes. "Pergamon and its Multi-Layered Cultural Landscape" was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014.
Writing on treated animal skin was known centuries before Pergamon. But according to a tradition reported by Pliny the Elder, when Egypt restricted papyrus exports to check the rivalry of the Library of Pergamon with Alexandria, the Pergamenes refined and standardised the preparation of skins — and the material came to be known by the city's name. The English word parchment descends from the Latin pergamena, meaning "of Pergamon".