April 14: Bergama and Assos: The Deluge and The Theatres

The rain that had begun to fall during our walk around our Bergama neighbourhood yesterday evening turned into a heavy rain today, complete with wind and lightning.  We got a private viewing of the Bergama Museum; toured the ancient spa and medical town of Asklepion, named for Asclepius and where Galen learned his art; drove north through an incredible rainstorm up the coast; then wandered around the ancient site of Assos, where Aristotle lived between leaving the Academy in Athens and tutoring Alexander the Great.  As the weather cleared, we walked around the lovely little resort town where we are staying, and watched the island of Lesbos appear slowly out of the mist.

We had breakfast and made our way to the Bergama Museum, following the directions of the GPS.  At one point, on the narrow street of Bergama, trapped between a bus, a taxi, and a sidewalk full of elderly men on chairs staring into the street, and with a horse cart bearing down on us, Ian muttered something about ending the life of Gimli (the GPS) with a baseball bat.  It’s true that she did take us first to a military barracks, next took us to the edge of town and tried to get us to go onto the highway into the interior, and finally argued with every turn we took as we followed the signs back into town.  However, in her defense (and I am very fond of Gimli), she doesn’t seem to know which is a small but paved and navigable road, and which is a muddy goat track.  She DID find our hotel this evening, first try!

When we arrived at the museum, a guard sauntered over to the ticket office and sold us a ticket, and we went up to the automatic doors of the museum.  As with many places here, the lights are motion activated, and we spent the first little while waving our arms to find out what we were looking at.    

The fresco from a house in Pergamon, and the architrave of a little temple.

 We were looking at some beautiful marble statues that had been found at Pergamum.  Pergamum, like Aphrodisias, had developed its own style, or school, of sculpture, characterized by movement in the human figures, and anguished or straining, or sorrowful expressions, rather than the classical posed neutrality.  The most famous example, the Dying Gaul, we have seen at the Capitoline Museum in Rome.  Since Ian and I read signs and look at stuff intently, the lights kept going out on us, and we would have to wave again.

A mosaic floor with the head of Medusa at the centre.  Her head is about two feet across, just to give you some idea of the size.

An example of the sculpture of Pergamon at 1.5 times life size.

The guard came in and turned on the lights in the ethnographic wing of the museum, and in the “small findings” section.  The handicrafts of the local people were incredible, especially some bead work and some embroidery, or is it trapunto?, worked in gold thread. 

The bridal costumes were lovely, and I was particularly impressed by the hamam shoes.  When I went to the hamam, I had enough trouble navigating the slippery marble floors in flat wooden shoes, and I couldn’t imagine wearing the others.  

Tied on with a ribbon.  Not for me, I'm afraid!

We also saw examples of Roman jewelry that I would happily wear myself.  Maybe not the snake armbands, but certainly the earrings!

We headed off to Asklepion, and arrived during the heavy rain.  As this was our only chance to see it, we put on our rain gear and headed down the sacred way.  The idea of Asklepion is that patients would first come to Pergamum, and then be assessed before heading down to the healing centre along this same sacred way.  Terminally ill people and pregnant women were turned away, which I think is cheating.  Asklepion is considered the first psychiatric hospital by some, and treatments included psychotherapy, massage, herbal remedies, mud and bathing treatments, the interpretation of dreams, and the drinking of water, which scientists believe to have had slight radioactive properties.  Patients included Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, and Caracalla.

We didn’t let the rain stop us, but we did spend a lot of the time exploring various tunnels and overhangs.  Since we had trouble making out the Acropolis we had explored only hours before, we were glad we had done the Acropolis first!

The Sacred Way, from the Acropollis at Pergamon, ending here at Asklepion.

View from the tunnel leading to the treatment area,

The treatment area, wich had lots of these little booth like areas.

We climbed to the top of the theatre, as always, and saw this ancient olive tree surrounded by a meadow of wild flowers.  The white flowers are chamomile.

The theatre from the bottom.

 We drove up the coast in a terrible rainstorm.  There were times when it was almost impossible to see, and there was a lot of standing water on the road.  I was worried about the colour of the clouds on the landward side as we drove along the sea, as they were a muddy brown colour.  We were relieved as we began the ascent into the hills to find that the roads were better drained, but then we drove up into the beige clouds and the fog made it very difficult to see.  In the last twenty minutes of the three hour drive, the rain let up enough for us to see the steep one lane road with sheer drops as we went down to the tiny hamlet of Iskele (meaning Dock or Wharf).  

Our bags were grabbed out of the car, and a staff member drove the car away.  We realized Ian’s camera was still in the car, so we picked up the keys from the front desk, and walked down the road for about half a kilometre, but never did find the car.  We did buy an ice cream cone, which tasted good, but had a strange texture, sort of stretchy and chewy, and you had to bit it off!   We asked about our car at the front desk, and they brought it for us so that we could go up and see the site of Assos.

The site of Assos is like a park – you go through a little turnstile thing, but there are no entrance fees.  We started with the theatre, which is the lowest structure – but when you build your entire city on a cliff, everything has a view.  We went up higher and saw the city walls, the gates, the gymnasium and the agora – you really have to use your imagination at this site, then walked the old street out of the city through the necropolis.  It was sunny, warm and windy, and we saw the island of Lesbos, which had been hidden in the clouds, gradually appear in the distance.

View from the top of the theatre.  That is the island of Lesbos, home to the ancient poet Sappho, in the background.

The city walls and the necropolis

Ruins of the gymnasium, which later became a church.  We were surprised to find the ancient cistern, a big hole with no fence around it.  Probably not up to code.

The bouleterion, or town hall.

Ian on the edge of the world.

Me, about to be crushed by a giant red wave of stone.  (not really)

Again the wildflowers were astounding, this time only a few inches high, nestled into the grass on this windy hill that is grazed by sheep.

Poor fig tree!

 

Back at the hotel, we proved that we are terrible with valet parking when Ian left his camera in the car, and the guy had to walk back and get it.  Took him ten minutes, so who knows where the car is!  We had a delicious dinner (table d’hotel style) and talked to a young mom who was chasing her son of about 14 months around.  She is an English teacher at a technical high school – two girls in the entire school.  We indulged in some great phone calls home to family – so nice to talk to Jim and Mom – and I am trying to convince myself to go for a brief swim in the pool before bed. 

Tomorrow it’s off to Troy!