Pergamon Ancient City

Pergamon Theatre and Scenery from Acropolis

Pergamon

The ancient city of Pergamon is where the parchment paper is invented and the name comes from the parchment. The library of the city has an important place in history. Pergamon Antique City is one of the twelve aeolians city states established on the coast of the aegean sea in western Anatolia. It is located on the Caicus River, today Bakırçay River which flows into the aegean sea. 

To Arrive Pergamon

Pergamon Ancient City is located in İzmir Province of Turkey. The city is located in Bergama district of İzmir province. The town of Bergama is approximately 110km and 1 hour 40 minutes away from İzmir city center. You can go directly to Bergama via motorway from the center of Izmir. If you want to go by a suburban train, you can go as far as neighboring district Aliağa. You can get on this suburban train in the Adnan Menderes Airport. This suburban train call as İZBAN. Pergamon Antique City is approximately 135 km and 2 hours away from Adnan Menderes Airport in Izmir.

When you get to the center of Bergama district, Because of Pergamon is a very big city, you have to spend a lot of time to visit all the buildings. It is in extreme and uncomfortable temperature during summer days.

Bergama Museum, Asklepion Healing Centre of Pergamon, Pergamon Acropolis and Red Hall (Red Basilica, Red Court) of Pergamon are worth seeing. The others except the acropolis are in the city center. It can be visited on foot. You can see many artifacts, especially the first tools used in medicine history in the Bergama Museum. There ıs a statue of Egyptian God Sekhmet in Red Hall.

Pergamon Acropolis

The acropolis of Bergama is located on a hill 4 km away from the city center. You can go here by land or by cable car. If you go by cable car, you can see all the city and historical buildings very well. The view of the Acropolis is magnificent. 

In the acropolis of the city, the theater, the roman house, Sanctuary of Demeter, the gymnasium and the trajan temple are worth seeing. The theater of the ancient city of Pergamon is one of the steepest theaters in the world. If you do not pay attention when walking, you can easily roll down. There are many ornaments and figures in the Roman house. You can also see the bases of the Temple of Zeus, now exhibited in the Pergamon Museum in Germany.

Since the acropolis of the ancient city of Pergamon is built on a hill, you must walk downwards to see the roman house, and you must go upwards while you are back. This can make you very tired. Consider this situation on hot summer days.

Pergamon Asklepion

It is one of the first hospitals in the world. There is treatment building, temple, theater, tunnels, sleeping rooms and lots of other things. You can see the symbols of medicine, snake figures, on many stones. People from many parts of the ancient world came here to be treated. 

Ephesus Ancient City

Ephesus Library

To Arrive Ephesus

Ephesus Ancient City is located in İzmir Province of Turkey.
Ephesus Antique City is one of the twelve ionian city states established on the coast of the aegean sea in western Anatolia.
The city is located in Selçuk district of İzmir province. The town of Selçuk is approximately 80 km away from İzmir city center and 1 hour away. You can arrive by motorway and railway from İzmir city center. The train road starts from the Basmane Station in İzmir City Centre.
Ephesus Antique City is approximately 60 km and 45 minutes away from Adnan Menderes Airport in Izmir.
When you get to the center of Selçuk district, you have to travel about 3 km to go to the ancient city of ephesus. There are public transports within 3 km distance.

Buildings in Ephesus 

Because Ephesus is a very big city, you have to spend a lot of time to visit all the buildings. It is in extreme and uncomfortable temperature during summer days.
In the city, the library, the theater, the odeon, the terrace houses, the hadrian temple, the Mary church, the trajan fountain are worth seeing. It is also made of stone and has wide streets.

In order to enter the terrace houses, you must pay a separate fee from the entrance fee. The terrace houses are covered and protected. It's a wide and covered area.

The theater of ancient city of Ephesus has giant dimensions.

Other Places to Visit

The church of Saint Jean, one of the 12 apostles of Christ, is located in the city center of selcuk.

The temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the world, was located in the ancient city of Ephesus. Today, the location of the temple is known and open to visitors, but nothing remains except a few columns behind the temple.

Saint Jean Church, Ruins of The Temple of Artemis and Ephesus Museum is located in the center of the Selçuk Town. When you arrive Selçuk city centre, you can visit these 3 places on foot. There is amazing Artemis Statues and lots of other things in Ephesus Museum.

Saint Jean and Virgin Mary lived in Ephesus. The house of virgin mary is about 9 km and 15 minutes away from selçuk city center. You can visit there too.

Socrates Quotes

• There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
• An honest man is always a child.
• I am not an Athenian nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
• I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.
• When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.
• Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.
• The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.
• I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing. 
• From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.
• Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.
• Know thyself.
• True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
• Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.
• Be as you wish to seem.
• Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind. 
• False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil. 
• Worthless people love only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.
• Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.  

Socrates is believed to be the founder of the Greek philosophy. He criticized the false beliefs of the living community and argued that the only guide is the mind. So, he was condemned to death as a result of deep criticism. Despite being a chance to escape, he preferred death.

In his living, there was a close harmony between his thoughts and actions. His this aspect gained respect him and provided the development of his ideas by followers.

Plato, the most famous student of Socrates, raised Aristotle. Aristotle also raised Alexander the Great who enabled the Greek philosophy to spread to the world.

He was constantly trying to reach the truth by asking hard questions and making definitions.This method of work has evolved from Aristotle to renaissance and forms the basis of today's formal logics and systematic ethics.