Watch Global Treasures - Pergamon, Turkey

Near the Turkish west coast situated between Troy and Ephesos, and set in all its glory, is one of the most famous and well preserved ancient cities of this region, Pergamon. Above the fertile plains and city of Bergama, cliffs towering up to more than three hundred metres high were inhabited by the Aeolean Greeks eight centuries Before Christ. In the Hellenic era it was an ancient cosmopolitan city the traces of which are still discernable today.When Athens had lost its political supremacy in the second century B.C., Pergamon and Alexandria became the new rival powers of the ancient world. Their rulers also began to compete in both art and science, a fact that led to much progress.In 41 B.C. the largest collection of two hundred thousand pergaments was relocated to the Library of Alexandria as a wedding present from Marc Antony to Cleopatra, where it was later destroyed by fire.Pergamon is indeed a wonder of an age of wonder!