Up there on top of the hill in the town of Bergama (ancient Pergamum) is an ancient Acropolis.  We'll go up and have a look in a little while.

But first we must have lunch.

I liked this place.  A really nice little restaurant in a really nice little town.

Workmen were making the place even nicer.

Mmmm...just look at all the great food.

The outside of the restaurant.

View of the Acropolis from downtown.

More downtown Bergama.  See the locals up there in the shade?

A mosque.

Now we're about to visit an ancient health spa, the Asclepium.

But first, a little souvenir shopping.

Colonnades along an ancient road at the "health center" at Pergamum.  This place was founded by the great Roman physician Galen, who was born here in 129 AD.

A jarring juxtaposition of ancient glory and modern squalor.

There's the Asclepium.

There are tourists exploring this old hospital.

Mete explains it all.

We will never miss it.

That fragment of a column is important.

It indicates that this was an ancient center of the healing arts.  Those snakes represent the medical profession.  This medical center was so good that no patient ever died.  Or so they say.

Hey!  There's a snake in the cracks of the wall. Or maybe just a lizard.

Mete and columns.

Mete and more columns and an ancient theater.

A passageway from one part of the hospital to another.

A long, dark, ancient passageway.

In this part of the hospital, the gods (actually the doctors) would whisper through cracks from above to the patients.  "You are feeling better."  "You are getting well."  "You need to pay your doctor."

Some of the walls have been re-created and propped up.

It's old in principle, but some of it is modern in practicality.  Wouldn't want ancient bricks falling on the heads of modern tourists. 

More ancient hospital.

More ancient marble.

Another colonnade.

A better photo of the colonnade.

Patients would walk barefoot along here. Their feet sucked up good health from the marble, or something.

An ancient theater.

Columns.  And behind them, up there on the hill, is the Acropolis of Pergamum.  We're going to head up there in just a few minutes.