Turkey

Turkey has so many hidden gems, I'm so grateful to Mina for sharing them with me! This time it's ancient city called Pergamon, located 26 kilometres from the Aegean Sea. Some ancient authors regarded it as a colony of the Arcadians, but the various origin stories all belong to legend. The Greek historians reconstructed a complete history for it due to confusion with the distant Teuthrania. It became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon during the Hellenistic period, under the Attalid dynasty, 281–133 BC.

Under the rule of Eumenes II, Pergamum was a wealthy, developing city with a population of over 200,000 people. Culturally it was rivaled only by the cities of Alexandria and Antioch. Many important works of sculpture and architecture were produced at this time, including the Great Altar of Pergamon (that can be seen in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin). Upon the death of Attalus III, son of Eumenes II, in 133 BC, Pergamum was bequeathed to the Roman Republic. After the fall of Constantinople, Pergamum became part of the Ottoman Empire. Pergmon, according to Plutarch, was home to a library said to house approximately 200,000 volumes, making it one of the biggest libraries of the ancient world.