When Alexander the Great arrived in Perge in 333 BC, he was received
with open arms basically because the city wanted to be in his favor and counted
on his support in settling their differences with Aspendos and Side.
I'm not sure whether the plan was successful, but the fact remains that Alexander used Perge as his basis from
where he organized his campaigns to the neighboring cities. Then as now, daily
life must have been easy going.
This Stadium is known as being the best preserved in Asia
Minor and is definitely worth a visit. It is built in the typical
U-shape and like the opposite theater seated as many as 15,000 spectators. In
the underground vaults that supported the rows of seats, the shops offered everything
the theater and Stadium aficionados
needed or wanted. A picture that looks very modern, I would say.
I deeply regret that the Theater is not open to the visitors as the construction is very unstable. I climb as far as I can through the thickets along the high fence, hoping to find a spot offering a worthwhile view of the inside. But my efforts are not rewarded and I soon am being closely watched by a guard, afraid that I might force an entry through the fence. He is right, of course, for the temptation is there. The theater is clearly Greek and could hold as much as 14,000 spectators. The particularity here is that at a later date the outer face of the stage building was converted into a Nympheum,
In Alexander’s days, the city was not walled and it were his successors
who built the first city wall in the 3rd century BC. Later on with the
expansion of Perge, the Romans tore down part of this wall and added a wider
one of their own. That is the reason why today we enter antique Perge
through two consecutive city gates, first the dull square Roman gate
and right behind it the two round Hellenistic towers. These towers are very
special simply because they look exactly like Macedonian siege towers inside of
which spiral shaped stairs run to the top. They
were being restored at the time of my visit but according to the latest news
the work has now ended (I hope the visitor will be allowed inside also?). I find this
corner of Perge extremely exciting as I discover the horseshoe-shaped
space behind these towers once showing off with the statues of the founders of
the city, including that of Plancia Magnawho held the highest civic
office of demiurgus and was also
priestess of Artemis and of the Mother of Gods (now in the Antalya Museum); only the base with the founders' names remain in situ.
The more than one kilometer
long main street is quite unique. As far as I’m concerned this is the only one
that has a water channel running in its middle – something like what we may see in some
of Turkey’s cities today (Antalya, Finike or Burdur, for instance). The water comes
from a lovely Nympheum situated at
the far end of the street and beyond that has been canalized from a cistern
higher up the hill. The water spouts from a slit at the feet of a lying goddess
and follows its course through the center of the city, over low walls inserted
to control the water-flow and to re-oxygenate it, creating mini waterfalls - a refreshing
element on hot summer days. Here and there small pedestrian bridges run across,
which at times held a small sanctuary.
Behind
the Nympheum a trail runs to the top
of the hill where the Acropolis was
located. From here the view is like a that of bird and the full layout of the city can be
discerned. Standing here, I realize how little has been excavated, while
walking through Perge’s streets suggest the opposite. I see the main road and
the city gates, the Roman Baths near
the entrance, the Agora with
surrounding buildings, and that about sums
it up. The Stadium lies outside the
walls with across from it the famous theatre. The city wall, on the other hand
clearly cuts through the lush green trees and shrubs where remains of other
sturdy buildings appear, like the Gymnasium,
the Palaestra and the Byzantine Basilica - all pending
excavation.
I
retrace my steps to the wonderful city gates and turn right to the remains of
the Roman Baths from the 2nd century
AD, which is one of the best preserved buildings of Perge. Lovely to
recognize the hypocaust with its floor heating avant la lettre. If you pay attention, you’ll notice parts of the
original flooring with bits of marble (opus
sectile), a marble plinth, a threshold or a gutter. The Solarium is another of those striking elements.
It proves once again how skilled Roman builders were!
To the left of the city gates lies the Large
Agora, trimmed with slender Ionic columns while the columns of the Stoa are crowned with Corinthian
capitals. In the center, are the remains of a round building the purpose or
use of which is unknown. As always, I try very hard to imagine the whole picture but it
is not easy, even with the help of a relief indicating that this shop was the
butcher’s – a hint to many other shops in the area.
I
venture further behind the Agora, in
search of the vaults I had seen from my viewpoint near the Acropolis. I wonder if this could be part of an aqueduct or
otherwise a Basilica? I reach a local
dirt road and lose my bearings. What I do find is a wide underground sewage
system, Roman of course, with at regular distance apart big square pits covered
with a lid where the maintenance workers could access the underground. My road
ends at a high wall and battlements, the remains of the eastern city walls.
Time
is always timeless when I stroll through an antique city, and it is no surprise
that I spent more than four hours browsing around. Even if I have not found
much of Alexander here, there are these
well-preserved round gate towers which have helped me in recognizing similar
constructions elsewhere, like for instance in Side (Turkey ) and in Apamea (Syria
[Click here to see all the pictures of Perge]
[Click here to see all the pictures of Perge]