Our first stop today was Troy, one of most important Bronze age cities dating to 3000 BC. There were nine different cities built on top of each other. Every 250 years or so, the city expanded and new city walls were built atop or outside of the old ones.
Walls of Troy 6
The foundation of the city walls and buildings were of stone, but everything above the foundations was built of dried mud brick, so not much remains today.
Brick upper walls of Troy 2
Troy is famous because of Homer’s Iliad, written 600 years after war that it describes. It is the Iliad that inspired Heinrich Shliemann, an amateur German archeologist, to discover and excavate Troy. Unfortunately, the jewelry and objects that he excavated were removed to Germany (as were entire buildings from Pergamon).
View over what would have been ocean
The ocean that Troy once backed onto has silted in and is now rich farmland.
Excavations reveal nine different cities of Troy.
Entrance to Gates of Troy
From Troy, we drove through miles of olive groves, over Mount Ida, and down towards Pergamon.
Aegean from Mt Ida
The old and the very old–Pergamon in background
Unfortunately, we did not visit the hilltop site of Pergamon because buses are not allowed up the hill. Visitors are now taken up in a sky tram that creates liability issues for the company.
We did, however, visit the Asklepion of Pergamon, a hospital complex built below Pergamon and dedicated to hydrotherapy. As early as the 2nd Century AD, the Romans believed that many behavior problems were caused by subconscious and could be rectified by having people face their buried memories (according to our guide, Sedar).
We entered the site through a grand columned Via Tecta or Sacred Way, with a paved road for chariots lined on both sides by a covered walkway supported by columns.
Entrance to Asklepion
Inside the sacred courtyard are the ruins of a library, theater, numerous temples and structures surrounded on all four sides by a columned covered walkway.
Asklepion theater and sanctuary
One form of hydrotherapy practiced involved a tunnel with spring water running through it where patients would lie with the soothing sound of water around them. Openings in the roof allowed ‘doctors’ to talk to them from above.
Spring water flowing into treatment tunnel.
Our guide, Sedar, in treatment tunnel.
The hospital is a round building with beautiful arches separating rooms.
round plan of hospital
Ellie in the hospital
A covered outdoor recreation area.
Theater
Ellie doing a pastel of columns
As we drove from Pergamon to Kusadasi, we passed numerous hilltop forts built by Crusaders, yet another reminder of how this area has been at the center of five thousand years of history. We were once again blessed by the weather gods as it rained when we were on the bus but not when we were wandering the sites.