Red Basilica

The Red Basilica is only 1 1/2 hour drive from Izmir and can be visited on your private guided Pergamon Tour. At that time, you'll be in what was the  largest Roman structure in the ancient Greek world. Pergamon, or Bergama as it's known in modern times, was the 'ancient capital' of the Romans and the many Roman investors built this marvelous city. 

 There was the famed Asclepieion (healing spa), the  Roman Stadium and the Red Basilica in all it's splendor. 

Can you imagine this? Just the hall was 26 meters (78 ft wide) and 60 meters (180 ft long) and this was without interior support or columns. See in your minds-eye, walls of marble and a breathtaking main marble door (existing today) that weighs more than 30 tons and is 7 meters (21 ft wide) and 14 meters (42 ft high).    

 The Red Basilica Temple had walls reaching 20 meters (60 ft) with towers 18 meter high (54 ft) and 12 meters in diameter (36 ft).... It is said that this massive temple dwarfed the Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek.

There were three cities making up Ancient Pergamon. The top had the Acropolis which Alexander the Great called Eagles' Nest. The second city was on the side slopes of the Acropolis hill and the lower city was at the bottom. This is the location of the  The Red Basilica (Red Hall). The sacred massive complex was built on a 180 meter (540 ft long) double-arched tunnel which forced the Selinus river to pass underneath to supply the water to the Temple pools. 

All in all... an engineering marvel.