Ayvalik

I didn’t really do very well at taking photographs in Ayvalik.

Despite being anchored close to the marina for a night and spending a night in the marina, the only photo I have to show is of the Thursday market. The fact that we got to visit the market is, however, a bit of a triumph for us because we generally seem to arrive somewhere the day after the ‘fabulous market’ has taken place and then depart before the next one. At Ayvalik, however, by fluke we were able to enjoy the sights, sounds and nice aromas of the bustling market with stalls crammed into the narrow streets.

It was quite opportune because we wanted to stock up with fresh fruit and vegetables and fill BV with some of the things we have enjoyed in Turkey before leaving for Greece. With arms laden down with shopping bags we stopped off at the fish market to buy some fish from the stall owner who had kept an eye on our dinghy for us on previous days. He was very puzzled as to where our dinghy was that day.

As well as making loading lots of supplies easy, the main purpose of the night in the marina was to complete the formalities for leaving Turkey. We had filled up with fuel on arrival at the marina so it was just a case of waiting to get our passports and ship’s papers back. That turned out to be a very efficient service. We could have traipsed around the town trying to find all of the different offices and departments to collect the necessary stamps but in the end we took the easy option and went shopping whilst an agent did the running around for us. That took just a couple of hours and our papers were returned with all of the stamps we needed to allow us to slip out of Turkey on 29 May.

Ayvalik, Turkey

Ancient Pergamon Part 4 – The Asklepion

Dedicated to Asklepios, the god of healing, Pergamon’s Asclepion was founded in the 4^th century BC. It was sited outside the ancient city on a ridge around which were natural springs which were said to have healing properties. By Roman times it was one of the most important healing centres in the ancient world.

Sacred Way

Over the centuries the sanctuary underwent many rebuilds; most of the remains we see today date from Roman times. The Sacred Way, the last part of which was colonnaded in in Roman times, led from the ‘Ruined Gate’ in lower Pergamon to the main entrance to the Asklepion. Prospective patients were screened by priest doctors at the ‘Ruined Gate’; no patients on the verge of death or pregnant women were permitted to enter the sanctuary; presumably to keep their performance statistic looking more positive. The colonnaded section of the Sacred Way contained shops and stalls selling ‘vows and commodities that would help the healing of patients’ – walking that final part must have been a bit like running the gaunlet of the tourist tat salesmen near the entrance to archaeological sites today!

Inside the sanctuary was a courtyard surrounded by stoa, which contained a temple to Asklepios, 2 smaller temples, sleeping rooms for the patients (where dreams were analysed), fountains and sacred bathing pools. To the northwest was a 3500 seat theatre, to the northeast a library and to the southeast the treatment centres, which were linked to the courtyard pools by a tunnel.

Temple of Zeus and Asklepios

Patients could reach the sacred bathing pools in the courtyard from the treatment centres by walking along the underground tunnel. This both protected them from any inclement weather and provided an appropriately restoring soundscape for them as a sacred spring runs gently down the steps into the tunnel. The spring still bubbles at the end of the tunnel today.

Courtyard with stoa and theatre in the background

Treatment centre

We spotted holes in the walls of the treatement centre of the sort we had seen elsewhere at other ancient sites. We learnt that in the post Roman era mining was reduced to the point that the ancient ruins were damaged in this way to extract the hidden metal tie rods which held the stonework together.

The 3500 theatre was built by a noble Pergamon citizen whose name should, doubtless, live on but the inscription on the theatre cannot be read. A lot of restoration work has been carried out on the theatre, which is clearly in quite frequent use today.

The sacred pools in the courtyard are now no longer in use and had a good covering of algae and duckweed or similar when we visited. Not that this put off the current inhabitants of the sanctuary – we saw plenty of large terrapins and frogs plopping around the pools of water.

Sacred Way loing back towards ancient Pergamon

And so, after a reviving visit, we walked back along part of the Sacred Way with ancient Pergamon standing out on the hillside above. We made our way to modern day Bergama to try to find the bus station and our dolmuş back to Ayvalık. Having now seen ancient Pergamon, the last ancient site in Turkey that we had planned to visit at this end of the sailing season, we were ready to sort out our papers and clear out of the country and move on to Greece.

Ayvalik, Turkey