This site ris­es high above the Bakir­cay Plain in Turkey‘s Aegean region. The acrop­o­lis of Perg­a­mon was the cap­i­tal of the Hel­lenis­tic Attal­id dynasty, a major cen­tre of learn­ing in the ancient world. Mon­u­men­tal tem­ples, the­atres, stoa or por­ti­coes, gym­na­si­um, altar and library were set into the slop­ing ter­rain sur­round­ed by an exten­sive city wall. The rock-cut Kybele Sanc­tu­ary lies to the north-west on anoth­er hill visu­al­ly linked to the acrop­o­lis. Lat­er the city became cap­i­tal of the Roman province of Asia known for its Ascle­pieion heal­ing cen­tre. The acrop­o­lis crowns a land­scape con­tain­ing bur­ial mounds and remains of the Roman, Byzan­tine and Ottoman empires in and around the mod­ern town of Berga­ma on the low­er slopes.