Red Basilica Hotel in Bergama (Pergamon)

​Where to stay when you visit the ancient city of Pergamon, which is in the modern city of Bergama?

We stayed in the Red  Basilica Hotel’s Paris & Helen suite, named after the Trojan prince and the Spartan princess because of whom the Trojan war is believed to have started. It’s an independent double storey house with 2 rooms on the upper floor and a sitting area plus a bathroom on the ground floor. Beautifully decorated & very comfortable with tradional tiles on the entrance foyer floor, solid wooden staircase and wood floor in bedrooms. There was clean linen, well maintained rooms and well equipped bathrooms. Overall highly recommended!

Dur Yolcu / Stop Traveller

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BİR YOLCUYA

Dur yolcu! Bilmeden gelip bastığın,
Bu toprak, bir devrin battığı yerdir.
Eğil de kulak ver, bu sessiz yığın,
Bir vatan kalbinin attığı yerdir. 

Bu ıssız, gölgesiz yolun sonunda,
Gördüğüm bu tümsek, Anadolu’nda,
İstiklal uğrunda, namus yolunda,
Can veren Mehmed’in yattığı yerdir. 

Bu tümsek, koparken büyük zelzele,
Son vatan parçası geçerken ele,
Mehmed’in düşmanı boğduğu sele,
Mübarek kanını kattığı yerdir. 

Düşün ki, hasrolan kan, kemik, etin
Yaptığı bu tümsek, amansız, çetin,
Bir harbin sonunda, bütün milletin,
Hürriyet zevkini tattığı yerdir. 

Necmettin Halil Onan

TO A TRAVELLER

Stop traveller! Unbeknownst to you this ground
You come and tread on, is where an epoch lies;
Bend down and lend your ear, for this silent mound
Is the place where the heart of a nation sighs.

To the left of this deserted shadeless lane
The Anatolian slope now observe you well;
For liberty and honor, it is, in pain,
Where wounded Mehmet laid down his life and fell

This very mound, when violently shook the land,
When the last bit of earth passed from hand to hand,
And when Mehmet drowned the enemy in flood,
Is the spot where he added his own pure blood.

Think ,the consecrated blood and flesh and bone
That make up this mould, is where is where a whole nation,
After a harsh and pitiless war; alone
Tasted the joyce of freedom with elation.

Necmettin Halil Onan

Gallipoli

A great message of peace

The travel route & tips

Western and Southern Turkey road trip, with special focus on historical places.

Ankara

Bursa

Gallipoli

Canakkale

Bergama (Pergamon ancient city ruins)

Ephesus ancient city ruins & Selcuk

Miletus ancient city ruins

Didim (Didyma)

Marmaris

Fethiye Oludeniz

Kas

Antalya

Perge ancient city ruins

Ankara

We rented a car from Ankara for the trip. Petrol is quite expensive in Turkey (4.5 Turkish Liras per liter), therfore it’s wise to get a car with low fuel consumption. Otherwise a diesel car may be a better option.

The roads, specially the motorways are exceptional. Road signage is also very good. We used Google maps extensively where we weren’t sure about our way, specially in small towns and when locating hotels or restaurants. The GPS option of Google maps is specially helpful where the “Google Maps lady” takes you step by step wherever you want to go. Google Maps is such a great convenience! Buying a local mobile phone sim with at least 4 GB of internet data (Available in August 2016 for 40 Turkish Liras) is highly recommended as Google Maps eats up a lot of MBs/GBs.

Booking hotels through Booking.com or Trip Advisor is cheaper than walking in or phone bookings. We were under the impression that directly calling the hotel up and reserving in cash may get us discounts. But it was always more expensive.

Parking is a huge issue  everywhere, there are paid car parks. Average fee is 10 Turkish Liras.

More to come…