A Multi-Layered UNESCO Landscape
History of Pergamon Ancient City
Discover how Pergamon developed from a fortified hilltop settlement into the capital of a powerful Hellenistic kingdom, a Roman center of medicine and culture, and one of western Türkiye’s most remarkable historic landscapes.
Settlement around the Bakırçay Plain reaches far back into prehistory, while evidence on the fortified hill of Pergamon extends to the early first millennium BCE. The city’s name is often connected with an ancient Anatolian word referring to a fortress or stronghold—an appropriate description for its commanding position on Kale Hill above the surrounding plain.
Pergamon rose to international importance during the Hellenistic period. After the death of Alexander the Great, Philetaerus established the foundations of a new dynasty, and Pergamon later became the capital of the Attalid Kingdom. Under rulers such as Attalus I and Eumenes II, the city developed into a major center of political power, scholarship, architecture, and sculpture.
The Attalid kings transformed the steep hill into a carefully planned monumental city using terraces, retaining walls, colonnades, temples, palaces, and public buildings. Pergamon became famous for its great library, which ancient traditions describe as containing around 200,000 scrolls, and for the celebrated Great Altar of Pergamon, one of the masterpieces of Hellenistic art.
In 133 BCE, the last Attalid king, Attalus III, left his kingdom to Rome. Pergamon continued to prosper as one of the most important cities of Roman Asia. The Romans expanded the lower city and developed monumental buildings including the Temple of Trajan, the Red Basilica, theatres, baths, aqueducts, and the famous Asklepion healing sanctuary.
Pergamon was also closely associated with medicine. The physician and philosopher Galen, one of the most influential doctors of antiquity, was born in Pergamon and became linked with its medical traditions. At the Asklepion, patients sought treatment through sacred water, exercise, diet, music, dream interpretation, rest, and other therapeutic practices.
During the early Christian period, Pergamon became one of the Seven Churches of Revelation. The enormous Roman sanctuary now known as the Red Basilica was later adapted for Christian worship. Byzantine and Ottoman settlement continued around the ancient remains, creating the multi-layered cultural landscape recognized by UNESCO in 2014.
