Pergamon Audio Guide

Welcome to one of the most ambitious engineering feats of the ancient world. The Attalid kings didn't just build a city; they transformed a massive, three-hundred-meter-high ridge into a vertical statement of power. Looking at the model on your screen, you can see how the most important structures—the royal palaces and sacred temples—occupy the very peak. From there, the rest of the city flows down the steep slopes in a series of perfectly level terraces. The entire hill is made of andesite, a dark volcanic rock that was notoriously difficult to carve. Despite its hardness, the architects managed to create flat ground where none existed by cutting deep into the mountain. This vertical design was purely intentional; the kings wanted to create a 'New Athens' that quite literally looked down on everyone else in the Mediterranean. As you explore the site today, the sheer effort required to move millions of tons of earth and stone to create these platforms remains evident. The design forced visitors to constantly climb upward, reinforcing the status of the kings who lived and worshipped at the summit.

Wladyslaw Sojka · CC BY-SA 3.0

The walls you see here are much more than simple boundaries; they are the structural foundation that made the upper city possible. They hold up the level terraces you saw on the model of the Acropolis, the platforms that gave the temples and palaces flat ground on this steep hill. These retaining walls acted as a giant engineering shelf, holding back the weight of the buildings and the earth behind them. To ensure maximum stability, the builders used no mortar. Instead, they relied on perfectly cut stone blocks and iron clamps that were set into the rock with molten lead. This technique allowed the structures to remain flexible enough to withstand the frequent seismic activity of the region. For over two thousand years, these walls have endured countless earthquakes that leveled more modern constructions. Without the incredible height and strength of these terraces, the monumental skyline of the Acropolis would have collapsed into the valley long ago. The precision of the stonework shows that the hidden engineering below ground was just as critical as the architecture standing above it.

horsch · CC BY-SA 3.0

While the massive temples on the Acropolis were built for the public and the gods, this mosaic floor belonged to the private world of King Eumenes the Second. Part of Palace Five, this space was once a highly decorated, heated room designed for royal comfort. The floor features complex geometric patterns made from thousands of tiny stone pieces known as tesserae. In the ancient world, the size of these stones was a direct indication of the owner's status; the smaller and more detailed the mosaic, the wealthier the person who commissioned it. These palace rooms were not just about the floors; the walls were once covered in richly colored paintings, and the spaces would have been filled with some of the most expensive furniture available in the Mediterranean. Most of the Acropolis feels monumental and cold, but here, you get a sense of the kings as individuals who valued luxury and intellectual pursuits within their own homes. The high quality of these mosaics reflects a period when Pergamon was at the height of its wealth, attracting the finest craftsmen from across the Greek world.

Photo: Dosseman · CC BY-SA 4.0

This courtyard once served as the entrance to the Library of Pergamon, the second-largest library in the ancient world. At its peak, it housed over two hundred thousand scrolls on its upper floors. The growth of this institution sparked a famous rivalry with the Library of Alexandria in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities became so concerned about Pergamon’s rising intellectual influence that they banned the export of papyrus to the city, hoping to cripple its scroll production. This backfired completely. In response, the scholars here perfected the use of treated animal skins as a writing surface. This material became known as parchment, or 'pergamena,' taking its name from this very city. This innovation changed history, as parchment was more durable than papyrus and could be folded into the first books, or codices, as we recognize them today. While the shelves and scrolls are long gone, the legacy of the work done here survives in the very name of the material that preserved Western literature for centuries. The courtyard was a place for quiet reflection and debate, situated safely within the religious heart of the Acropolis.

Wladyslaw Sojka · CC BY-SA 3.0

This colossal figure of Athena once stood prominently within the city's great library. Standing three meters tall, it is a faithful copy of the world-famous gold-and-ivory Athena created by Phidias for the Parthenon in Athens. By commissioning such a high-quality replica, the kings of Pergamon were sending a clear political message: they considered themselves the true heirs and protectors of classical Greek culture. The figure is now missing its arms, but she originally held a small statue of Victory in one hand and a shield in the other. As the goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, Athena was the patron of the city, making her the perfect guardian for the hundreds of thousands of scrolls stored in the surrounding rooms. Her presence elevated the library from a simple warehouse of information into a sacred space of learning and state ideology. While the statue has been moved to a museum, you can still find its original stone base at the site today, marking the spot where the goddess of intellect once presided over the greatest collection of knowledge in Asia Minor.

Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany · CC BY-SA 2.0

Looking up at the remains of the Temple of Trajan, the first thing you notice is the brilliant white marble. This material stands in sharp contrast to the dark, local andesite used for the older Greek buildings on the hill. This temple was a much later addition to the Acropolis, built during the second century AD to honor the Roman Emperor Trajan and his successor, Hadrian. Its location at the highest point of the city was entirely intentional. It acted as a massive billboard for Roman power and engineering, visible from miles away in the valley below. Notice the elaborate Corinthian capitals resting atop the columns, featuring intricate, leafy acanthus carvings. This site represents the transition of Pergamon from an independent Greek kingdom to a central hub of the Roman Empire. It wasn't just a place of worship; it was a physical manifestation of the Emperor’s divine status and the immense wealth of Rome. The engineering required to build such a massive marble structure on this narrow peak was unprecedented, requiring the construction of deep underground supports to keep the heavy temple from collapsing the mountain's edge.

Travelling Runes · CC BY-SA 2.0

Beneath the elegant marble of the Temple of Trajan lies this network of heavy arches, which functions as the hidden ribcage of the upper city. The hilltop was originally too narrow to support a temple of such massive scale, so Roman engineers had to create their own ground. They built these vaulted substructures to extend the mountain's surface, creating a perfectly level and stable platform for the architecture above. These are not basements intended for human use; they are purely structural elements designed to distribute the immense downward pressure of the marble columns. The precision of these vaults is remarkable, as they have remained standing for nearly nineteen hundred years. Like the great retaining walls you saw earlier, they have outlasted the earthquakes that brought down the more delicate buildings above them. As you look at how the arches are perfectly aligned, you are seeing a masterclass in ancient civil engineering. By using the arch to divert weight, the Romans were able to conquer the natural limitations of the landscape, allowing them to build monumental symbols of power in locations that Greek architects previously thought were impossible to build upon.

Alexey Komarov · CC BY-SA 4.0

These underground corridors run beneath the Temple of Trajan. These tunnels provided a cool, dark environment that was likely used for storage, but their most important job was architectural. As you look through the long series of arches, you're seeing a sophisticated system of pressure management. Each arch pushes against its neighbor, creating a continuous force that effectively pins the hillside in place. The stonework in these hidden passages is often even more precise than what you see on the surface. This is because the entire stability of the temple above depended on the integrity of these blocks; if even one slipped, the marble structure overhead would have cracked and fallen. While most visitors focus on the white columns above, it is this hidden network of stone that demonstrates the true technical genius of the Roman builders, who mastered the physics of stone to reshape the very mountain.

HALUK COMERTEL · CC BY 3.0

At the end of these tunnels, you can see the fascinating transition where Roman masonry directly meets the raw, dark andesite of the natural mountain. These vaults were an essential part of a massive land-reclamation project. By building out from the rock face, engineers created an artificial terrace over sixty meters wide. Without this clever expansion of the earth, the Temple of Trajan would have had to be less than half its current size. While they were originally built for structural support, their utility didn't end when the Roman Empire fell. In later centuries, as the grand temples above crumbled, these well-preserved vaults were repurposed as shelters, stables, and workshops by the people who continued to live among the ruins. Their durability is proof of the high quality of the construction; the vaults remain largely intact today, still performing their original job of holding up the edge of the Acropolis. They provide a unique perspective on the sheer scale of the terraforming required to make Pergamon the architectural marvel that it eventually became.

Bachelot Pierre J-P · CC BY-SA 3.0

Beyond the art and philosophy of the city lay a stark military reality. These thick-walled rooms were the royal arsenals, five long halls designed to store the supplies necessary to survive a multi-year siege. Archaeologists working here discovered thousands of stone catapult balls, a grim reminder of the city's defensive focus. One of the most impressive feats of the builders was the ventilation system. The stone rooms were so well-designed to keep air circulating that grain stored here remained edible for over thirty years. This wasn't just a city of beauty; it was one of the most defendable high-security fortresses in Asia Minor. The kings understood that their wealth and cultural treasures made them a target, so they built these massive warehouses at the most secure point of the Acropolis. The proximity of these supplies to the royal palaces ensured that the ruling elite would be the last to fall in any conflict. Today, the ruins of these halls show the logistical genius of the Attalid dynasty, who balanced their love for the arts with a hard-headed commitment to military preparedness and long-term survival.

Mark Landon · CC BY 4.0