Pergamon

Pergamon ran a Hellenistic kingdom from the top of a steep ridge, and the ruins still climb it in terraces: the sanctuary of Athena, the white marble columns of the Temple of Trajan re-erected on the summit, the bare foundations of the Great Altar whose sculpted frieze was taken to Berlin in the 19th century, and a theatre driven into the slope at a pitch that makes the seating feel vertical. The library here was famous enough that parchment carries the city's name. Down in the plain lie the Asklepion, a Roman healing sanctuary with a colonnaded sacred way and a tunnel to the treatment rooms, and the Red Basilica, a huge brick temple later reused as a church. UNESCO listed the layered landscape in 2014.

What you actually see

• The theatre - some eighty rows driven into the hillside at a startling angle.
• The Temple of Trajan - re-erected marble columns on the highest terrace.
• The Asklepion - the healing sanctuary in the plain, with its sacred way and tunnel.
• The Red Basilica - the vast brick temple standing in the town below.

When to go

April to June and September to October give walkable temperatures; July and August turn the bare ridge into an oven with almost no shade. Go early, do the acropolis first and the Asklepion after lunch. The cable car runs through the day but queues build when tour coaches arrive mid-morning.

Honest expectations

Two separate sites means two tickets, two entrances and a taxi between them. The Great Altar is only a platform now, which disappoints people who came for it. The acropolis is steep, uneven and shadeless, the theatre stairs are genuinely alarming, and signage is thin without a guide.

Nearby

Bergama's bazaar and Ottoman quarter, with the Aegean coast at Ayvalik an hour north.