Day Trip from Izmir to Bergama (Ancient Pergamon): Acropolis and Asclepion

One hundred kilometres north of Izmir across the fertile Bakırçay plain rises the dramatic volcanic mesa of Pergamon (modern Bergama), capital of the Hellenistic Attalid dynasty and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014. Where Ephesus sits in a sheltered valley, Pergamon's Acropolis perches like an eagle's nest 335 metres in the sky, famous for inventing parchment (charta pergamena) for its 200,000-scroll library and for carving the steepest theatre of the ancient world straight into a vertical cliff face.

How to Get to Bergama from Izmir (Easy on Public Transport)

You can visit Bergama independently using your regular İzmirim Kart or contactless bank card:

1. Board a northbound İZBAN commuter train towards Aliağa at Alsancak, Hilal, Halkapınar or Karşıyaka and ride to the northern terminus at Aliağa station (about 60 minutes).
2. Right outside Aliağa station waits municipal ESHOT Express Bus 835 (Aliağa Aktarma, Bergama), timed to connect with arriving İZBAN trains and reaching the centre of Bergama in 45 to 50 minutes.

The Three Great Sites of Ancient Pergamon

• 1. The Pergamon Acropolis (Reached by the Bergama Teleferik Cable Car): from the base of the hill north of town, ride the modern 5-minute aerial gondola lift (Teleferik) up to the summit. Walk past the white marble Corinthian columns of the Temple of Trajan, the foundations of the Sanctuary of Athena and the Library of Pergamon, and the pine-shaded terrace where the monumental Great Altar of Zeus stood, then step out onto the lip of the Hellenistic Theatre, where 80 rows of 10,000 stone seats drop at a sweeping 70-degree angle above the valley floor.
• 2. The Red Basilica (Kızıl Avlu, in the lower town): at the foot of the Acropolis hill stands a massive 2nd-century AD red-brick temple built under Emperor Hadrian for the Egyptian gods Serapis and Isis, straddling the ancient Selinus River inside twin subterranean stone tunnels and later converted into a Byzantine basilica dedicated to St John.
• 3. The Asclepion (Asklepion, 2 km west of town): one of the most famous medical and holistic healing sanctuaries of antiquity, where the great Roman physician Galen of Pergamon trained. Walk down the colonnaded Via Tecta (Sacred Way) to the circular Temple of Asclepius, the subterranean treatment tunnel where patients walked to the sound of running spring water, and the intact Roman theatre. Before returning to Izmir, stop at a traditional lokanta in Bergama's Arasta bazaar for Bergama köftesi and crispy çığırtma fried aubergines with garlic yoghurt.