Pergamum 13th April

TJ collected us from our hotel in Assos in the morning after breakfst and we drove to Peramum. On the way we called in to visit a wonerful Olive oil Museum at Aditepe. It was fascinating- showing all the various preses and containers used over the years. Georgie and i bought some lovely olive oil soaps with lavender & orange, some divine olive oil which you could just drink!!! and some other little things at the beautiful gift shop. 

Display of pots used to store olive oil

Variety of containers

Life cycle of the olive

Olive groves as far as the eye can see
for miles and miles and miles.

 It was a beautiful day and the drive up the hill to the remaims of Pergamum was stunning. It was built above the township of Bergama, originally settled by the Greeks in the 8th Century BC. We were met by our lovely guide, Levent who, like our previous guides was extremely knowledgeable about Pergamum. I just wish my brain could take it all in and remember it all. It was quite windy up on the top of the hill but an amazing view and location for a settlement.

Library ruins- reputedly containing
more than 200,000 parchment
scrolls- many went to Alexandria as
part of Mark Anthony's wedding gift
to Cleopatra in 41 BC.

Sample of column top

Looking through to the white marble
Temple of Trajan

Georgie/Hadrian!!

Passageways below the Temple-
off these were huge cool cavernous
rooms for food storage

Quite a beautiful place and sadly my camera died at this point- although Georgie continued to take photos- I haven't got them from her yet. Don't know when that will happen!! The Altar of Zeus which was one of Pergamum's largest temples was taken and rebuilt in Berlin's Pergamum Museum. The Germans seem to have many Turkish remains in their country. The Altar is only a large rectangular mass of stone which was the base, I imagine, with a very large tree growing in it now! One needs a very good imagination when visiting Troy and Pergamum to envisage what the complete structures must have looked like.

Then there was the carpet co-operative!!!!
It just so happened that Levent's wife (guide) was acarpet weaver. As is common in Turkey now- many carpet weavers, mainly women, belong to larger co-ops so they are assured of an income and their carpets are sold through thess. It is a good idea and the one we visited has about 1700 women who come there to weave or bring their carpets from their little villages to be sold.
We saw silk being extracted from the silk cocoon- my camera came alive for one last photo!!

The fine threads of silk are running over Georgie's fingers onto the spindle, from the cocoons that are in the hot water.The moth must not hatch out of the cocoon or else it severs the thread. They put them in boiling water to kill them and then take off the silk. 1500 m of silk on one cocoon,amazing!

Georgie and I were showing some women making carpets and both had a turn at weaving the "double" knot which is traditionally Turkish. If your carpet is not woven with the double knot then it is not Turkish- so beware and be warned!!!!
I had not intended to buy a carpet- but, we were offered apple tea and a glass of wine and then shown some magnificent carpets- some are absolutely stunning, both wool and silk.
Anyway, I got hooked, so bought Georgie a lovely one to take back to England to put by her bed. I plan to go back later and by one for Laura and Richard and I guess, me!!
After another cup of apple tea we set off to be driven to Kusadasi, down the Aegean coast.
On the way the muffler fell off the car, but luckily TJ could get a friend's replacement car and we arrived at our 5 star eatel overlooking the saeside town of Kusadasi at about 7pm.
We had had a great day.