Ruins of Pergamum

Hi again. Ostin and I made a try at the waterfall that we were told about, but it was a much longer hike than was suggested. We heard that it was 10 minutes, but it ended up taking at least 2 hours each way. I've got a feeling that we were talking about different places. We found a section of the Lycean Trail that led up the valley from the beach and out hostel and into a narrow canyon that got pretty steep.

Along the way we picked up the company of a local dog that we named Shorthound in honor of my tradition of calling local kids that follow me Shortround. It's an Indiana Jones reference if you didn't know. Well, the trail ended pretty rapidly but it's hard to get lost in a canyon and Shorthound knew the way, so we pressed on. The canyon was thick with oleander, sycamore, and pine and had a small stream running down the middle.

At several points the canyon compressed and we'd have to scramble along steep and smooth rocks on the sides to keep from going in the water but also there were times that we had to ford the stream anyways. Shorthound had no problem getting over the steep parts if she had a running start, but Ostin and I were in flipflops and hiked a lot of it barefoot. Finally we got to a waterfall that we thought was too dangerous to climb around so we called it the top and turned around to head home.

On the way back we picked wild Thyme and Sage but we couldn't find a lamb to roast so it all went to waste. Turan made us a special dinner that night... 2 small sea bass each and a lot of sides. Definitely his best meal of the 3 nights we were there.

The next morning we packed up and headed out to catch a bus into town. The hike up to the bus was truly brutal with all my stuff and I was soaked by the time we caught the bus at 10:30. From there we went back to Fethiye and Ostin went inland to Pamukkale and I went north to Bergama. It was a really long day of bus rides and when I got into town that night I was impressed by how much ground I was able to cover.

I met an Australian backpacker at my hostel named Anna. We were the only guests in the dorm and so we went out to dinner and to chat. She's a doctor and had some good tips about how to heal a pretty nasty cut I've got on my hand. I waited a few hours to ask her about it after learning that she's a doc and she told me that she hates bringing up the fact that she's one because she gets overwhelmed with queries for advice whe people find out. Mine just happens to be one of the less gross things that she needs to discuss in backpacker health. Anyways, she's been on the trail for 9 months already and is heading home in 3 more after he hits up Spain and some parts of Africa.

That night we also met an English couple that talked at length about how great the ruins of Pergamum are and told us about a hole in the fence that they used to hike back to town. Of course this struck us as a way that we could enter through and avoid the $15 entrance fee. The ruins are about 2 km away from the hotel at the top of a hill, so of course we were going to go there anyways. So the next morning we followed a shepherds trail to the hole in the fence and kept a close eye out for officials.

Pergamum was a huge and important city in the ancient world. You see, after Alexander the Great died his territory was fought over by his generals for many years. One of the 3 generals who came to control the 3 great territories captured a huge horde of treasure worth over 9000 talents. I have now idea how much that is, but I think it's huge. Anyways, he entrusted it to one of his commanders in the city of Pergamum but then died in a subsequent battle. The treasure stayed and over several generations the city grew in wealth and importance and had the second greatest library in the ancient world after Alexandria. So the city had a Greek period that I just covered, but during Roman times it lost some influence and one of the kings willed the city away to Rome upon his death. A tax free zone was negotiated and the city on the hill became massively wealthy once more. In Byzantine and Ottoman times it declined and was lost to time.

Later on in the 19th century the Germans excavated it and carted off the best statues and pieces of gold that they found. What was left was reconstructed to some degree and is today pretty impressive in scale and in the quality of its buildings. We saw the gymnasium (the largest in the Hellenistic era), the library, several theaters, and several great temples. They weren't in great shape, but the foundations survived and some of the pillars are still there.

After lunch we set off to see another great ruin, the Red Basilica. It was originally a huge temple built in the 2nd century AD used to worship the Egyptian gods Serapis, Isis, and Harpocrates. It was pretty important and St John wrote that it was one of the 7 churches of the Apocalypse and also singled it out as the Devil's throne. When Christianity came into fashion, they did not convert the temple into a church but rather built a smaller basilica inside of it for whatever reason. It's in pretty bad shape today, but I got some sense of it's awesome scale.

We also walked a long ways to the other side of town to visit another famous ruin, the Asclpion. It was a huge medical complex that would treat anyone who wasn't pregnant or dying. The didn't perform miracles, just non fatal ailments like skin maladies and I dunno what. Basically they would have you drink from various sacred pools and sleep in special chambers. Some chambers would control the light levels to try and heal and others resonated the sounds of flowing water to ease the mind. When you'd wake up, mystics would analyze the dreams to come up with a prescription. It was very famous and had some really huge temples. We could not avoid the entrance fee however and also had to endure the the rain.

The town itself is pretty nice, without any huge buildings and generally has friendly people. I laughed when we were finding a good place for lunch and accepted some samples that turned out to be grilled liver. Anna choked and spit it out while I just choked it down and grimmaced. Anyways, the next morning we set off to go to the bus station together because we happen to be going the same direction, to Troy and Gallipoli. This involves traveling to the city of Canakkale which is more or less between the two and a good base for expeditions.

The ride up was uneventful and we checked into the first hostel listed in LP since it was just starting to rain. In retrospect I regret this because I don't really care for the hotel too much, but I guess my issues are with things that are had to detect anyways, like that the wifi is crap and the plugs in the rooms can't hold a charger properly. They also sell guided tours of Troy and Gallipoli out of the hostel but they're a little expensive. I might have to do the Gallipoli tour since it's really impossible to tour on your own, but I'll take a public bus to troy and do without the narration. The only other thing that I feel like mentioning is that we went out to dinner at a place that looked like it had a great Iskender kebab and it was truly legendary. Iskender is made of thin slices of lamb mixed with chopped bread and roasted peppers and then topped with a savory tomato sauce. A big pile of firm yogurt is added to the side and you've got Iskender. It's awesome. Actually, I think that I've talked about Iskender before, but this one was the first great one.