To the Black Sea - Pergamon Page

We berthed at Dikili about midday, so there was a ‘Sail in’ party on the after deck, as the sky was all blue, with a mild wind. This followed the port talk for Catania. Avis was on the Izmir tour bus & needed an early lunch. I went to Pergamon, now Bergama, where we were given a splendid lunch buffet, at which I ate modestly.

Then, we were driven to the gondelbahn, built (thankfully) by the Austrians. This goes up to the Acropolis. There are both Greek & Roman remains here. The Greeks built with dressed dry stone blocks but the Romans had cement (& did some Gerry-building with it).

The Greeks had built a defensive town on top of this big hill & the Romans later added temples to Trajan & Caracalla, the Trajan one being a major engineering operation. The Germans stole a whole temple & rebuilt it in Berlin!

Much is broken but the Turks are restoring stuff with some sensitivity.

Then, we went to the museum, which is very well laid out. There was a bust of a Roman of early 3rdC, which I immediately recognised as Caracalla & told Aysha, our guide. She said she would follow it up. There is a bust of him in the British Museum. He never visited here, as he was negotiating a trade deal with the Scots (or Picts, more likely but we have 4 Scots on the coach).