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