Pergamum (Bergama) - Part II

So once we had visited the Trajaneum and then walked around the edge of the city, we came to where there used to be a temple for Athena and then to the Theater.

First, here's the Theater from the very top, above the entrance:

And here's the entrance!

Before we went down into the Theater, though, we spent some time looking around the temple of Athena:

It's a level below the Trajaneum

Those stones there form the beginning of the foundation

And of course, once we were done with the temple for Athena, I had to get a picture of the walls from the top of the Theater:

Anyway, after that we went exploring the theater. The acoustics weren't the same as in Ephesus, but they were still pretty good. This one also wasn't as big as in Ephesus, but it was very, very, very steep. The whole time I was there, I kept thinking of those stairs by Cirith Ungol that Frodo, Sam, and Gollum have to climb to get into Mordor.

Pictures:

Here;s how tall the seats were

Here's the temple I showed in the last post from the top

These were some cool stones by the temple

After we managed to climb back up, there was one last place to visit in the city. The actual item, the Pergamum Altar (dedicated to Zeus) is gone, in a museum in Germany, but the foundation is still there.

And finally, looking back at Pergamum:

Pergamum is the third church mentioned in Revelation, and it is described as the city "where Satan has his throne" (Revelation 2:13). That's harsh! One of the professors on the trip explained that "Satan's throne" is probably a reference to the Imperial Cult and the practice of worshiping human beings as gods. Standing in Pergamum today, it's pretty clear that anything built by human hands, no matter how majestic, is going to fall apart one day. The wonder of God and His word is that both will last forever, even when everything else is gone (1 Peter 1:24-25).