4 Best Sights in Pergamum (Bergama), The Sea of Marmara and the North Aegean

The most dramatic of the remains of Pergamum are at the Acropolis. Take a smooth, 15-minute ride on the teleferik, which includes sweeping views on its way up the hill, or follow signs pointing the way to the 6-km (4-mile) road to the top, where you can park. After entering through the Royal Gate, bear right and proceed counterclockwise around the site.

At the summit, the partially restored, 2nd-century AD Temple of Trajan is the very picture of an ancient ruin, with burnished white-marble pillars high above the valley of the Bergama Çayı (Selinus River). Nearby are the ruins of the famous Library (Atheneum), built by Eumenes II (197 BC–159 BC) and containing 200,000 scrolls. On the terrace below, you can see the scant remains of the Temple of Athena.

Climb down through a stone tunnel to reach the Great Theater, carved into the steep slope west of the terrace that holds the Temple of Athena. On a nearby terrace, the Altar of Zeus was once among the grandest monuments in the Greek world. If you're prepared for a long and rather steep descent, there's more to see on the slope leading down toward the town.

This small museum houses a substantial collection of statues, coins, jewelry, and other artifacts excavated from the ancient city and nearby sites. A relief from the Kızıl Avlu (Red Basilica) showing gladiators fighting bulls and bears and a Medusa mosaic from the Acropolis are particularly noteworthy. The well-preserved statue of Nymphe comes from the site of Allianoi, a Roman spa town that was submerged under the waters of a dam in 2010. The ethnography section includes examples of the antique handwoven carpets for which Bergama is known.

This is believed to have been one of the world's first full-service health clinics. The name is a reference to Asklepios, god of medicine and recovery, whose snake and staff are now the symbol of modern medicine. In the center's heyday in the 2nd century AD, patients were prescribed such treatments as fasting, colonic irrigation, and running barefoot in cold weather.

The entrance to the complex is at the column-lined Sacred Way, once the main street connecting the Asklepion to Pergamum's Acropolis. Follow it for about a city block into a small square and through what was once the main gate to the temple precinct. Immediately to the right is the library, a branch of the one at the Acropolis. Nearby are pools that were used for mud and sacred water baths, fed by several sacred springs. A subterranean passageway leads down to the cellar of the Temple of Telesphorus, where the devout would pray themselves into a trance and record their dreams upon waking; later, a resident priest would interpret the dreams to determine the nature of the treatment the patient required.

The Red Basilica is named for the red bricks from which it's constructed. You can't miss it on the road to and from the Acropolis—it's right at the bottom of the hill, in the old part of the city. This was the last pagan temple constructed in Pergamum: when Christianity was declared the state religion in the 4th century, it was converted into a basilica dedicated to St. John. Egyptian deities were worshipped here, and an 27-foot cult statue of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet has recently been reconstructed. The main building—whose walls remain, but not the roof—is fenced off for restoration, but you can still walk around the site and see the "before" and "after" of the work in progress. One of the two towers has also been restored and has some displays inside; the other tower is used as a mosque.