Troy, Pergamon & Selcuk, Turkey 10/29/2006

Pics are:  One of the 7 churches St. John wrote to; Us in the Trojan Horse,; Ruins @ Troy; Theatre in Troy; the WC; Bakircay River now a lake and drying up; Temple of Trajaneum @ Pergamon; ruins @ Pergamon; theatre @ Pergamon and the steepest theatre in the ancient world; us with Mark & Angus from Australia on the theatre @ Pergamon....... We're up at 7 but it's really 6 as Turkey goes on daylight savings as we fall back.  We're in Canakkale at the Yellow Rose Pension where we have spent the night.  Shower and get dressed and organized.  Go down to town and try my card in the ATM again.  No luck.  The breakfast is good and I get on the computer to check emails here at the Pension.  We leave for Troy.  Our guide is a Turkish girl and she's quite good, sometimes hard to understand.  This ruin site has 9 cities built on top of each other.  Trojans from 2920-2500 BC.  The first city burned.  The women had only copper for jewelry.  From the second city on, the women had gold and silver.  "Homeric Troic" was the fifth city.  VI or 6th city was captured by the Greeks.  VIII or 8th city was ruled by the Emperor Alexander the Great and began the Hellenic Period.  They had aqueducts carrying the water to the city, aqua meaning water and duct meaning carry.  The city was known as Ilios when the Greeks owned it or captured it.  The wall we see is 3,500 years old.  It's hard to imagine some place that old.  The VII or 7th city was used by the Trojans and the Greeks.  There were temples to Athena in a couple of these cities commanding wonderful views.  We see an old Palace made of mud and brick with no windows, a door but entered from the top.  The wall and tower dates to 2,500 BC, from city II and III.  I buy some postcards here.  A German, Schliemann and his wife, find treasures here and take back to German, unknown to the Turkish government or Sultans at this time.  The Russians take artifacts from here to Moscow after occupation in WWII and they are now in that museum today.  American excavation in the 1930's-1988 of Troic I was more closely studied.  There is an alter to Zeus here and Roman Baths.  The 7th city has a theatre from 1,000 BC.  We drive on to Bergama where we can purchase a buffet lunch for 84 TL.  I don't like the looks so I'm the only one not to eat here.  I buy a bracelet for Amy as the one I like is too small for me and I know it will fit her.  They are glass beads with a few fish beads.  I buy some sesame sugar coated peanuts and 3 mandarins at a pee stop where Dean tells us to check out the WC.  They are decorated hysterically and I take a pic of the one I use.  We go on to the ruin site Pergamon.  One of the 7 churches that St. John wrote letters to, told in the book of Revelations, is here.  Turkey has more ancient sites than any other country in the world, with over 300 on the Aegean and Mediterranean coast alone.  It was the first location for the production and usage of coins, about 2,700 years ago.  It is the location for 2 of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the Temple of Artemis in Selcuk and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in Bodrum.  It is where Noah's Ark landed at Mt. Agri (Ararat) in Eastern Turkey.  It has the first church ever built in the city of Antakya, St. Peters.  70% of it's population is under 35.  Provides 70% of the world's hazelnuts.  Has the most valuable silk carpet in the world, 144 knots per sq./m, in the Meviana Museum.  The steepest theater si here in Pergamon.  Pergamon was the most glorious city of its time.  In the 4th century BC it was captured by the Greeks.  The 3rd. century BC was the Hellenistic period and was given to Rome by the Sultan.  Kings and soldiers and important people lived up here.  The original people lived below in what is Bergama today for around 5 years after Roman occupation, then they left.  It sits high above the Bakircay River, one of the biggest rivers in ancient times but is now slowly drying up.  There is no flow from this river into the Aegean any more.  This river was referred to as "Copper tea" and is now only a lake.  The water from this river supplied the people of the area and there are huge aqueducts still to be seen.  The Acropolis was supplied by huge wells holding rain water.  The largest alter, with gold statues all around it, was here at Pergamon.  It was taken by a German archaeologist to Berlin where it is in a museum today, The Pergamon Museum.  He was actually given permission by the Sultan.  Turkey has requested it back as well as the artifacts from Troy that are in Moscow, but both countries have refused.  The city originally had a Temple to Athena but was changed to The Temple of Trajareum, the Emperor of the time.  There was the first library here containing 200,000 books, the books were of papyrus paper from Egypt.  Several of the books were given to Cleopatra as a wedding present from Mark Anthony.  When the Ptolemies stopped exporting papyrus, partly because of competion and partly because of shortages, the Pergamenes invented a new substancecalled "pergaminus" or "pergmena" (parchment) after the city.  This was made of calf skin, a predecessor of vellum.  There is a theatre here that held 10,000 people.  We walk down to it thru a narrow arch covered stairway.  To the right of the theatre is the Temple of Dionysus, God of wine.  The temples were adorned with many beautiful statues, many headless so they could change the heads according to leadership.  The city was a leader in art, science and literature.  The first hospital of it's time was here, down below the acropolis to the right where the city of Bergama is today.  The guide points it out from the top of the theatre.  It was all herbal medicine at this time and Galen soon was creating other medicines used in this facility.  Galen was born in Pergamon of Greek parents 129-201, and was an early doctor of the times, disecting animals and discovering the functions of the human boday because dissection of human corpes was against Roman law.  He rece4ived his medical training in Smyrna and Alexandria.  He gained fame as a surgeon to the gladiators of Pergamon.  He was eventually summoned to Rome to be the physician to the Emperor Marcus Aurelis where he stayed in court till his death in 201.  There were 3 grave rooms found below and to the left and are from the Hellenistic period.  We can see the larger Greek acropolis from the theatre where we stood high above.  The city was abandoned after the 2nd century BC.  We stop and take a pic of this church on the way down, which is one of the 7 churches that St. John had written the letters to told in the book of Revelations.  Heading for Selcuk thru Izmir, a very large city.  We arrive in Selcuk about 8 p.m. and they drop us at the Artemis Hotel.  Looks nice but the wrong Artemis.  The cook walks us over to the correct Artemis Hotel.  It's not that nice and I think we're the only ones here.  We get somewhat settled in our room and I go out to buy some wine.  I stop for a vegetarian pizza as the guy from the hotel walks me over to the place.  I stop in the bakery and buy a yummy cream filled horn that I eat for breakfast.  Back to the room, drink some wine and eat half the pizza which is in the shape of a long rollup and go to bed............next day is Pamukkale.........